What I Learned: 23 New Things

Happy Boxing Day! I hope that everyone had a great weekend and a great holiday with their loved ones. This week is a short one workwise, plus we have another three day weekend to look forward to next weekend! I thought that I would start wrapping up the year early by getting started on some of the year end lists. Last year, I went over 22 new things I had learned, seen, done and new places I had gone over the year. I really like injecting new things into my life, as it keeps things fresh, even if it is sometimes a little uncomfortable! I liked the list so much that I decided to do it again, so here we have, in no particular order, 23 new things from 2023. 

1. Alaska. This was one of the 50 U.S. states that I had not yet been to. I had a great time hiking, running, looking at mountains and glaciers and experiencing light basically all night. I did not see the Northern Lights though, so this is still on my wish list for now. 

Hiking the Bomber Traverse

2. Overnight bikepacking for the first time. At the beginning of the year I finally took Bob out for his first off road experience. I biked from my house to the Samuel L. Taylor state park, which is a cool camping and hiking area in the redwoods. I spent the night there and then biked back home the next day. It was very fun, a little harder than I thought it would be, and it made me want to do it again (see #22)! 

3. Selling stuff on the internet. Before this year, I had never really sold anything on the internet. As I have mentioned before, I broke the seal with shoes as they are rectangular and easy to ship, and then moved onto other things. Are there scammers and bots and people from Nigeria messaging you? Yes. Can you ignore/mute them? Yes. Was it as bad as I feared it would be? Nope, in fact it was not bad at all. As an added bonus (?) I also am now quite proficient at Venmo, which I was not really a user of before. However, if you want to sell on FB marketplace, you gotta get used to using Venmo. 

4. Hiking the Arizona Trail (AZT). For Easter weekend, I took an extra day off and spent five days hiking on the Arizona Trail. It was much different than what I am used to in my neck of the woods, which was fun. Also, I got lucky that it was a high snow year and so I had enough water and it was not scorching hot. For those who don't know, this trail is normally hiked in the spring or fall, as the summers can get into the 110+ range at times. 

Picketpost Mountain - AZT

5. Life on Mars. I have a friend who is doing a Mars simulation, meaning that she is stuck in a habitat for a year as if she were actually living on Mars. This deserves a post of its own, but for now you can read about it here if you are interested. Being on Mars means that there are no phone calls, no video calls, basically no real time communication. Even emails are delayed due to the "distance" from Mars to Earth. Luckily we can send emails up to a certain size, so I have been sending her voice recordings so that she can hear my voice from time to time. I never really liked the sound of my voice, but I have gotten used to it, as I often listen to my last recording before sending a new one so that I can remember what I already talked about. 

6. Not quite a century aka 97 miles in one go. Bertha and I completed a century minus three this fall. I know, I know, I should have just ridden another THREE miles to get to 100 but I didn't feel like it. I know that if I can do 97, I can do 100, and I will do it eventually. This was from Davis to Oakland and it was quite a journey. What I learned from this is that I prefer non-city riding over city riding. 

7. Ninth (and penultimate?) Quad Dipsea. After you run the Quad Dipsea ten times you get a fancy finishers jacket. I keep telling myself that I just have to run it one more time and then I am done!! We shall see though, as I know many a friend who has said that and is now on their 13th or 14th time. 

Headed downhill to Stinson Beach during the Quad Dipsea

8. Watch a Japanese movie. I do not know what the style is called, but I watched The Boy and the Heron. My brother loves this style, and so do K's kids, but I was just ho hum on it. I am not opposed to cartoons; I love Finding Nemo! However, I am not sure the two dimensional drawing style or the pace of the movie was my favorite. When I said this to my brother he said that this style is "very beloved" and he was sad to hear that... 😞 I guess one thing I did like was the background scenery drawings, as they resembled watercolors. 

9. Hike to Lake Aloha in the snow. Last winter was a very high snow year and this meant that even in July, hiking was very snowy! However, although it was difficult to get to, we had Lake Aloha basically to ourselves and it was beautiful. To top it off we had to jump in for a swim, even while avoiding the icebergs! 

Camping above Lake Aloha

10. Switch from Comcast (Xfinity) to Sonic. My Comcast was getting very expensive, at about $75 for just internet. So I decided to finally take the plunge and try a new carrier, Sonic, which has fiber and was only $39 per month. My first three months were free, the speed was great, and then it got bumped up to $39 BUT...as it always is, the price was more than I thought. They charge $10 for a voice line, which I do not use but cannot cancel, and with the taxes and the router rental (which I could not use my old one for), it ended up being $70!! Haha. I guess I am saving $5 and it IS fast, so there's that. 

11. Mendocino. I had driven past Mendocino before but never stayed there, and it was a treat. It is a small coastal town and you can walk along the bluffs. It was a rainy weekend when we were there, but we had fun walking on the beach, eating and riding on the skunk train! 

Pacific coast near Mendocino

12. Ride to Santa Rosa for the weekend. On New Years Day I rode to my brother's house in Santa Rosa from Richmond, which was my longest ride ever at the time, and was about 55 miles each way. Later in the year, I beat my own PR by riding from my house to his, which was about 75 miles each way. 

13. Ride the Amtrak with a bike. The weekend that I rode 97 miles was part of a journey I took where I took the Amtrak from Oakland to Auburn and then over the next two days rode from Grass Valley back to Oakland. The experience was good and I would like to do some more train rides, and knowing I can put my bike on them fairly easily was a relief. Maybe one day I will just ride off into the sunset and if I get tired, I will take the train back home. 

The bike car on Amtrak

14. Throw away all old Christmas cards. I was saving these because now a lot of them have photos and those are memories! However, now there is Facebook and other places on the internet where I can find photos of people so I decided that I did not need to keep them in a box that I never look through. I have to say, it feels like a weight has been lifted. I am sure I will have moments where I wish I had that cute photo of three year old soandso, but right now, it feels good. 

15. Three Michelin star dinner. For a client dinner, we went to SingleThread, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Healdsburg, which is part of the Sonoma county wine region. I am not going to lie, I don't think the bang was worth the buck. I am glad I got to try it, but I will probably not go there again. 

16. Complete a snowshoe race. In February, I went to see Lisa for her birthday and we did a snowshoe race. It was fun but we used old school snowshoes and there are actually running style ones that would be easier to run in. However, we had a great time chatting and staying warm by moving as fast as possible and drinking the (warm) water at the aid stations! 

Lisa getting it done! 

17. Gluten free biscuits and gravy. B&G is my favorite breakfast item. However, in 2022 I realized that wheat gives me some tummy issues so I have been avoiding it ever since. I was very sad to give up both biscuits, which are obviously made of flour, and good sausage gravy, which is thickened with flour. But Lisa and I found a good GF bakery near the snowshoe race and they had B&G and they were really good! I meant to try duplicating it on my own, but I have not gotten around to it (however, I have done a bit of GF baking and I find that the results are actually pretty good!) 

18. Bike accidents. I am very careful on the bike, but I would be amiss if all I did was talk about the good. In Spokane, I hit a goat head thorn, blew a tire, and tumbled (and skidded face first) right on the pavement. Luckily I was wearing gloves and the car next to me was stopped. In Oakland, I got hit by a car turning right. Luckily, he was not moving fast and I just bounced of his passenger door and onto the ground. I took a trail ride and went over a bump and accidentally squeezed the front brake too hard and went ass over teakettle over the handlebars. Luckily all of these have been minor, but accidents do happen! 

19. Driverless cars. I knew they were around, but it still made me do a double take when I saw my first driverless car in San Francisco. I signed up to try it, as they offer ride shares, but still have not had a chance yet. There have been some controversies over these, but aside from a couple of kinks, I think a robot is probably better suited to driving than many of the humans I see operating motor vehicles. 

A Cruise car with nobody at the wheel. 

20. Hike in Castle Crags State Park. I have driven by and even hiked near Castle Crags, but had never been inside the park before. In June, for my Dad's birthday, my family went and hiked up to the Crag Dome, where we had a great view of Mt. Shasta and the surrounding area. For those who don't know, Mt. Shasta is about 14,180 feet high, which I think makes it the 5th highest mountain in California. It is volcanic and is part of the Cascade Range, which extends all the way to BC and includes well known mountains like Hood and Rainier. 

21. Drive through the eastern part of Oregon. Once you leave Bend and head east, it just gets more and more sparse and the trees go away and it gets hot and there are no amenities. Really, there are none! We almost ran out of gas. We also camped off the side of the highway and there were these huge crickets, which could be Jerusalem or Mormon crickets, but whatever they were, they were gross and they hitchhiked in my car and I kept finding them in random places for days afterward. 

High desert of Oregon

22. Bike across Washington state. K's daughter A told everyone that I rode across the US, but I had to tell her that I may someday, but this trip was only across WA! It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the Olympic Peninsula and the varying scenery of the state as a whole. This trip had a lot of firsts: longest multi-day ride, first time taking the bike on the ferry, lots of new rail trails, riding through Seattle and riding through a two mile long tunnel! 

23. Soccer mom duties. Once a week I go and spend time with my friend K and her daughters A and L and often on weekends I will chauffer and spectate whatever sport is happening for the season. This has now been a regular thing for a couple of years, and it has been fun to be chauffer, confidant, game buddy, soccer/lacrosse "mom," bike instructor, cook and friend to all three ladies. Even though sometimes it is hectic and we don't have time to chat, more often than not, it is a chance to catch up a little with what is happening in each of their lives, which is priceless.

So there you have it, 23 new things in 2023. There were many more than this of course, but these were some of my favorites. 

What new things did you do/learn/try or places did you go in 2023? How do you feel about driverless cars? How do you feel about the Japanese drawing style? 

North Bay Overnighter: My First Bikepacking Trip

You have already met Bob, and you know that I have not really had a lot of experience with mountain biking, but that did not keep me from deciding to try bikepacking out as soon as the bomb cyclone had passed and we had a sunny weekend. I figured why not, since I already have a lot of backpacking and camping gear, so all that I needed was something to put the gear in and attach it to my bike and I would be good to go. I figured I could learn the rest as I went.

Bolinas Ridge Trail

What is bikepacking? It is basically the same as backpacking except instead of carrying all of your stuff on your back, you carry it on your bike. Your stuff includes a tent (unless you are going to cowboy camp, aka lay out your bedroll under the stars) and sleeping gear at the very least and can include a stove, pots, food, bike tools, extra clothes, electronics and toiletries. So, like I said, pretty much like backpacking. Usually the route consists of more trails than pavement, also like backpacking, but can be on highways, gravel roads, bike paths, logging roads, forest service roads or fire roads. 

Here is Bob, all loaded up and ready for adventure!

How did I find out about this? I have no friends who do this. To be honest, and I am a little embarrassed to admit this, I found it on YouTube. I was looking for ideas for summer hiking/backpacking and I stumbled across this channel where two regular people completed part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) and I thought, "I want to do that!" and I started looking into it. I found a great local route that I could get to without driving and off I went. Of course, before this, I went pretty deep into a YouTube wormhole. You know how that goes. 

The route that I found can be found on Bikepacking.com and is called the North Bay Overnighter. It is an 80 mile route that goes from the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) through the Marin headlands to Samuel P. Taylor park near Point Reyes and back a different way to the GGB to finish the loop the second day. These are mostly trails that I have run on before, so I felt pretty comfortable with the route-finding aspect of the trip although this also meant that I knew exactly what I was up against in some cases, which was a little bit daunting! 

Day 1: The official route starts and ends at the Anderson parking lot on the Marin side of the GGB. However, since I live in Oakland, I decided to get there by bike rather than driving. I started off by riding my bike from my house to the BART, which I took to the Civic Center station in the city. It was pretty early in the morning and the only people on the street besides me were the homeless, the druggies and the prostitutes. This is not the most beautiful part of the city, let me just say that. From the Civic Center, I rode down to Fort Mason and then went past Chrissy Field to the end of the GGB. I crossed the bridge in the fog and wet and finally got to the official start around 8:00 am with about 9 miles under my belt already. 

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the headlands

From there, the route goes up the road to the Coastal trail, and the sun was just starting to break up the fog and I had some really nice views of the bay. I then cruised down the Coastal trail, which is a very gradual downhill, although there were a few rutted areas that made me realize that I had no idea if was best to ride in the rut or try to stay on one of the side lumps, and at one point I heard another bike behind me and I was not sure if I should pull over or get off to the side or...what the rules were! The route goes down, crosses the road and then heads back up Bobcat, which is really just one big mile and a half long uphill and is a trail I have run many times, but have never been able to run the entire uphill without walking a little. However, I rode the bike without stopping the entire time and I was so proud of myself that I stopped at the top for a snack before heading down towards Tennessee Valley. 

From Tennessee Valley parking lot, the trail goes back up the Miwok trail, which was my first experience with the hike-a-bike! Also by now it was actually getting warmer and I shed yet another layer on my way up this hill. After the uphill, Miwok is a nice gradual downhill that crosses highway 1 before going back up towards Dias ridge. Dias was my first true single-track and I had "fun" learning how to manage the hairpin downhill turns, although I did  have one slow speed fall in this section. Side note: the completely packed bike is probably about 50 pounds, which is hard to control on the curves! You live and you learn, I guess. 

Dias Ridge Trail

After going down Dias you get to Muir Beach and this is where I had to break out the GPS. The trail was hard to find, as the route takes you basically up the side of a hill in what looks like someone's backyard, but I think it is just an attempt to not make you ride on the road for that section. However, it is a little strange, as you come out at the top on the road, which you then have to ride on for about a mile and a half before you go back onto the trail again. I was a little afraid of the road as I have driven on it and seen cyclists and it seems a bit scary (it is a windy coastal road) but people were polite and the traffic was still not yet too bad. 

Getting off the road and back on the trail toward Cardiac/Pantoll

The trail takes you to Cardiac and you cross the Dipsea before heading to Pantoll, which is a parking lot, bathroom, water fountain and camping area. Apparently there is hike in/bike in camping here but I was only about 21 miles into the official 40 that I was supposed to do this day, so I kept going. From Pantoll, you ride on the road uphill for about 2 miles; again, this was with cars, but there were also a lot of bikes and the cars were pretty polite. Then came one of my favorite parts of the ride: Ridgecrest Blvd. This road was mostly downhill and is very flowy, with barely any cars AND a view of the ocean for days, and then you go into a redwood forest and it's dark and moist and magical. It is super cool! It was so SO fun. 

Ridgecrest Drive

After four miles, you turn off on the Bolinas Ridge trail, which is dirt but doesn't have too many steep ups or downs and goes on for several miles. However, the very end, when you are headed down toward the turnoff to the camping, is a lot of bumpy downhill, which was quite jarring at times. When you get almost to Point Reyes, you turn off and go to Samuel P. Taylor park, where there is a hike in/bike in campground and for $7 you can put up your tent! I got there around 5 pm, put up my tent, made dinner and then spent a wonderful few hours listening to my audiobook before heading to bed. I did this trip in January and I was the only person in the shared campsite! 

Bolinas Ridge Trail

Samuel P. Taylor hiker/biker camping

Day 2: The next morning I got up early, realized I was out of fuel, drank a cup of cold coffee, strapped on my headlamp and hit the road. Well actually it was a nice flattish paved trail at first, but very soon afterward, I went straight uphill into the fire roads again. Seriously, my first 2 miles were flat, then the next 8 miles were about 3,000+ feet of climbing. Again, I embraced the suck of the hike-a-bike, but I spent a long time wondering when the joy of the downhill was going to come. When the downhill finally came thought, at first it was not very joyful. It was very rocky and rutted and I actually had to push my bike on some of the downhills! 

View from the top of the hike-a-bike near Kent Reservoir

When I got back to the Bolinas Fairfax road, I decided that instead of going into Fairfax and then back up the hill to Tam and then down again to Tennessee valley and then up again to the start line where I would then have to cross the bridge and ride the BART, I would rather skip the extra hills and the public transportation and head back home via the Richmond bridge. So I went through Natalie Coffin park into Ross and from there I took a series of bike paths into Larkspur, where I rode out onto the Richmond Bridge. Once I got to Point Richmond, there was only about a mile of street riding before I got onto the bike path along the bay. A lot of this part of the route was on the San Francisco Bay Trail, which is a trail that goes all the way around the Bay Area. Some of it is on an actual dirt trail and parts of it are on roads and bike paths, but all together I believe there are over 500 miles! 

Larkspur bike path

View of the city from Richmond (SF Bay Trail)

Once I got to Emeryville, I had to go back onto the streets to get to Oakland, but I have to say most of them have pretty good bike paths, so it was not too intimidating. However, I was definitely ready to be done and I even briefly considered taking the BART although by this point it would not have saved me any time or even very many miles! To add insult to injury I let Google maps tell me which way to go and it took me right up a hill that I normally try to avoid (MacArthur Ave.) However, avoiding it would have added a mile probably, so maybe in this case it was really half a dozen of one and six of the other. It sure was nice to get back home though and I celebrated by taking off my bike shorts and walking around without pants for a few minutes before making myself something hot to eat. (TMI? Too bad!) 

Thoughts/What I Learned: Sometimes riding on the road can be fun. I need to bring more food next time. I am stronger than I think I am. When riding down hills, lift your butt off the seat unless you want to be sore later. Samuel P. Taylor is very beautiful. Pushing a 50 pound bike up a hill makes my arms feel like noodles. It also makes me VERY hungry. I probably need different shorts (I am wearing hiking shorts over bike shorts). A screw top water bottle is a lot of work (will bring squeeze bottle or hydration bladder on next trip). 

Comments: Bikepacking.com says that this route in 99.9% rideable with a difficulty of 4/10. I would agree with the latter, as is it mostly fire roads and there are not too many rocks or things to avoid, so even a beginner like me can do it. However, 99.9% rideable is perhaps a stretch as I don't know who can ride up the 14% - 20% grade at the beginning of day two. Maybe I am just out of shape, I don't know, but 99.9% would mean that less than a tenth of a mile is not rideable out of the entire 80 miles. 

Total Miles: 98.3

Total Elevation: 11,300 ft.

Total Time: 15 hours

CalTopo Route

Download the Ride With GPS GPX file here. I get ideas and inspiration from: Bikepacking.com, Ryan, Chris and his buddy Rob, John and Mira. 

Have you ever gone bikepacking? Tell me about a YouTube or internet wormhole you have found yourself deep in, and how did it turn out? 

What I Learned: 22 New Things

Happy New Year! Each year, a goal of mine is to try new things! This can be going to a new place, trying a new restaurant or food or activity or learning something new. I don't really have a certain number in mind, but I thought it would be fun to talk about 22 of them, in honor of 2022. Here they are, mostly in the order that I did them.

1. Emigrant Wilderness in the snow: I usually go to Emigrant in the summer for hiking but this time we decided to go for some winter sports. We stayed near Pinecrest and spent one day skiing and one day snowshoeing and then one day taking a hike around the lake before going home. It was beautiful and we liked it so much we may go back this year and do a longer snowshoeing trip! 

2. I threw out all of my instruction manuals. I know this is not that exciting, but I finally decided that if I need to, I can look up product information or instructions online and I do not need to keep the heavy booklets for everything I have ever bought in my life. It freed up my file cabinet a lot and I have not even missed them! I did take photos of some of the more  pertinent details but otherwise I am basically manual-free! 

3. I added a few new travel destinations to my list, which also added a LOT of new things which I will not list separately. Austin: Texas BBQ, kayaking on Lady Bird lake and live music! Lost Coast trail: many miles of hiking in the sand, cool shells and creatures and the rising tide! Amsterdam: bikes and canals and legal drugs, oh my! Slovenia: this deserves a post of its own, but hiking and dragons and sausages abound! Mt. Hood: circumnavigation on the Timberline trail. Washington: Enchantments (a must see!) and section L of the Pacific Crest Trail (the most northern of the PCT). 

Lost Coast

4. I tried some new foods. Shakshuka. This is something that never appealed to me since it involves cooked tomatoes, which I did not really like as a kid. However, as an adult, and when REAL tomatoes are used, I realized that they can be pretty good actually! And this includes my favorite breakfast item, the egg! I would eat it again. Cioppino. Same story regarding the tomato, but this is also pretty good. I would still rather have a bowl of creamy New England clam chowder however. Homemade yogurt. This is so easy and so delicious; I actually prefer it to store bought and it is way cheaper. It does take about 24 hours to make yourself, but I think it is worth waiting for!  

Yogurt

5. FODMAP elimination diet. This deserves a post of its own, but the short of it is that I was having some gastric issues and was put on this diet which consists of several weeks of elimination and then several more of reintroduction. I am still not 100% sure what is ailing me, but have a better idea than I did a year ago. 

6. Ran through Harvard Yard. I have looked at Harvard from the other side of the Charles but had never been on campus. While visiting friends in Sommerville, I took a run and went and explored Harvard. What a beautiful place! I thoroughly enjoyed it and it also gave me a chance to go inside and use the bathroom! :) 

7. Participated in a 30 day fitness challenge. This was a good way to reset my fitness plan, which sometimes gets a little blah. I did this with a few friends and I don't think that any of us actually finished it, but it was really fun trying to! The issue for me was not the exercises themselves, but the regularity of doing it every day. I would find myself forgetting or while in bed at the end of the day realizing I had not done it so then I would tell myself that I would just do two of them the next day....etc. 

8. Chopped off and donated my hair. This is not a new thing but I did send it to a different charity than I normally do as I was told that Locks of Love, the one I have sent hair to before, actually sells their wigs! Shame on them! So this time I sent it to Wigs for Kids, which I was told does not profit from my donation. They make it really convenient too; you print out a barcode so you can track where it is in the process after you send it. 

9. Tried to sell shoes on Ebay. Total and complete failure. I started with only a few pairs but I did not even get a nibble. I even lowered the price, but still nothing. And then I lost hope and kind of gave up on that project. However, I have a bunch of barely or never worn shoes that I really did not want to just give away. Does anyone have any tips for me about this? 

10. Did an almond croissant challenge. While in Brooklyn, I tried all of the almond croissants at all of the bakeries within walking distance from my hotel. I tried about 7 or 8 different ones! Some of them were just meh, but there were a few that I liked and my favorite was from Julien. Shortly after this, I learned that wheat may be a contributor to tummy issues that I am having, so my croissant days may be limited, so I am glad that I lived it up while I could! 

11. Went camping at Lake Sonoma. This is so close to where I live, yet I had never gone camping at the lake until 2022. You do have to hike or boat in to some of the spots, but we did both and had a great time. Plus, you have to love the California coast, where you can camp outside in April and even get a little hot! 

12. Tried to summit Mt. Whitney in the snow. In April, my brother and I tried to summit Mt. Whitney but there was a late spring snowstorm and we decided to be safe rather than sorry and we turned around early. However, it was really beautiful to see some of the normally bare places covered with snow. 

Photo Rock

13. The year of the bike! In 2022, I waited until everyone who bought a bike during COVID got tired of it and then I bought a used stationary bike. I have used it a handful of times, but now that it is winter and raining, I think it will be getting more use soon. I also bought my first mountain bike and am still dialing in the adjustments and I can't wait to go out on my first ride! I also completed my longest bike ride ever (to date) of 42 miles, surpassing my 2013 record of 40 by two miles! 

14. Cowboy camped in the NV desert. On a road trip to Wyoming, we stopped outside of Reno and lay down by the side of the road under the stars! It was a little windy and dusty, but I actually slept great! 

Somewhere near Reno, NV

15. Backpacked in Grand Teton NP. Although permits were a little difficult to get (you have to get online on a certain day at a certain time and know exactly the dates you want and the campsites you want to stay at) once we were there, this was a great experience. It was beautiful and not as crowded as I expected and the views just kept on coming! I have been to Wyoming a few times and this park once before but I have never done any overnights and it did not disappoint! 

16. I got a new job. This probably deserves its own post, but basically my whole team went from one firm to another. We are still learning some of the rules and systems and things like that, but we are pretty satisfied with how the whole transition went overall. 

17. Summited Mt. Elbert. While not my first Colorado 14er, this is the second tallest mountain in the continental US and the highest in Colorado, so it was fun to check it off my list. Also it was fairly easy (as the 14ers in Colorado sometimes are) logistically. We were staying in Twin Lakes so I just hiked up to the top of the mountain and back down again to our AirBnB! Easy-peasy! 

The Collegiates as seen from the summit of Mt. Elbert

18. Discovered Octowordle. If you love Wordle, you will love Octowordle. You do not need to download an app and it is free and you can play games from the days before, so if you feel like more than one, you can have it! You have to solve eight Wordles at the same time and it is super fun. 

19. Got a bidet. I will not go into too much detail here but I bought a Tushy and I love it. The end. Seriously, it is easy to install and it does the job. 

My Tushy

20. Cross country backpacking Emigrant. I always wanted to do this cross country route near Cherry Creek in Emigrant but it was never on the way or convenient and we finally did it in October. It was great because the water was low so we could basically walk on the creek bed which made cross country travel very easy. Plus it was beautiful and we had the place all to ourselves since it was so late in the season. 

21. Went to a David Sedaris reading. I have never been to a book reading before and I do love listening to Sedaris books as he is a good narrator, so this was the best of both worlds! I also brought my brother and his girlfriend along, and although neither of them really have read Sedaris, they both enjoyed it. 

22. Finished my Death List. Maybe this needs a better name, but it is basically getting all of my "affairs" in order just in case something happens. I have had most things pretty dialed in (advanced directive, POA, beneficiaries) but wanted to put it all on one list so that people can access it easily. I started working on making a more detailed list last year when my grandmother died (nothing like a dose of reality to get you moving, eh?) as her list made it so easy to take care of her affairs after she passed. 

Wow, I did not mean to make the last one so dreary, but it is the most recent! Also, happily, I did a lot more than 22 new things in 2022, but I like the sound of 22 in 22 so I will leave it at that! Here's to many more new things in 2023! 

What new thing did you learn, place did you go or experience did you have in 2022? 

On Being Uncomfortable

As adults, we become fairly stuck in our ways at times, doing the same routine or same tasks over and over. Having kids definitely gives people a new outlook, new tasks to do, new people to meet. For example, for the last couple of years I have been helping a single mom friend shuttle the kids to soccer and lacrosse practice and games. Not only have I learned about pickup and drop off (did you know that only a couple of the parents get out of the car? I always get out of the car. Am I doing that wrong?), but I have been learning how to play lacrosse (this is not a sport we had available when I was a kid). I am learning how to listen to and to give advice to kids; I am learning some bad (but very fun) dad jokes. 

Aside from that though, what do we do to put ourselves out of our comfort zone? Last weekend I took a bike ride with Bertha (that's my bike). This may seem easy enough, but my plan was to take my old bike all the way around the bay. Here is my CalTopo map. This would mean crossing two bridges and going into towns that usually I only fly by on the freeway. It would mean riding in the street, sometimes on roads with little shoulder and across two bridges with various rules and strange entry points. It would mean not knowing where I could use the bathroom or whether or not I needed to lock up my bike or where I could lock it up. It would mean riding further than I ever had before. It would mean being out of the house for an unknown period of time, in the cold and the wind. My bike could break down; I could get a flat; I could get lost; I could encounter all manner of things. 

But. I could have fun, learn something I did not know yet, stretch my ability and see new things. Which is what I did. I started at my house and rode to a bar in uptown Oakland to watch the World Cup final. After watching Argentina get a much deserved win, I got back on the bike and started riding toward the Richmond bridge. Luckily, there is a bike path that goes all the way from Emeryville to Richmond, which is about 10 miles long and sticks to the shoreline so there would not be too many cars to contend with. 

I followed that for about 10 miles and then had to go on the streets to get to Point Richmond, which is usually easy to get through. However, they were doing construction and there was a detour and instead of going on a flat street through downtown I went nearer to the coast and the hills and got quite an unexpected work out. Once I recovered from that, I went toward the bridge, but I didn't realize that when it said right turn it meant right after the street, not ON the street, so I almost went on a freeway entrance until a guy rolled down his window and told me that the bike path was just up the street. Oops! 

Bay Area bikeways

Next was the approach to the bridge and then a four mile stretch on the bridge, which always seems flat when I am driving on it, but I swear was uphill the whole way on the bike. Plus there was a cross wind that did not make it any easier. This was the point that I decided that my 50 mile circumnavigation of the whole bay may be a little ambitious and I should start thinking of a plan B. Luckily, depending on how long you want to wait, there are three ferry options that go into San Francisco as well as several bus options. So I got off the Richmond bridge and cruised into Larkspur where there is a ferry. Unfortunately, the next ferry came in about an hour and a half, but I did not want to just sit around and wait, so I decided to press on to Sausalito where I could catch the ferry from there if I hurried. 

Approaching the bridge

Richmond Bridge

Of course from Larkspur to Sausalito there were about 17 different turns and it did take me a while to make sure I was going the right way. Also when I got on the bike path that goes into Sausalito, which I have run on before, it was a lot more miles than I remember to get from there to the ferry. Of course the headwind did not help and I was passed several times by cyclists with large strong thighs, which really made me realize that I need to train more for this sport. However, it was a beautiful sunny day and there were people out enjoying it and it really was a great day to be alive. 

In Sausalito, I literally walked onto the ferry and it left, so if I would have been 5 minutes later I would have missed it and had to either wait another couple of hours or climbed the dreaded hill and crossed the Golden Gate bridge. Instead I had a great ride, ate a snack, enjoyed the view of the city and Alcatraz (if you have never taken this ferry, I highly recommend it. It is much cheaper than a proper bay cruise) and the all of the bridges. 

From San Francisco, I took the BART back to Oakland where I had about a four mile ride to get back home. I will admit, but this time I was super hungry despite my snack on the boat, but my butt was definitely not as sore as I thought it might be after such a long ride. This actually is now my longest ride ever! 

So, after this long story, what is my point, you are asking!? I would say the moral of the story is thus: first of all, you can teach an old dog new tricks...just kidding. Seriously, get out and try new things. Maybe it is embarrassing or unusual or uncomfortable or HARD, but you won't know until you try it and if you hate it you don't have to do it again, because you know what? You are an adult! However, I have found that many of those hard or uncomfortable things often become my favorite new thing to do.  Did I learn from this one? Yes. Did I have fun? Most certainly. Was it hard? You bet it was. Will I take another long bike ride? Definitely.

Total miles: 42
Time taken: 4 hours
Bridges crossed: 1 (Richmond)
Modes of transport: 3 (bike, boat, train)
Map of my trip: https://caltopo.com/m/G96UB 

What uncomfortable thing have you done lately? Have you ever taken a long bike ride? If so, what tips can you impart for my next ride? 

What I Learned

The older I get, the more things I realize that I do not know. Here are a few things that you probably have known about for ages, but I have just recently learned. Why I did not know this earlier, I don't know, but it is kind of fun and surprising to learn such simple things. 

How to Eat a Banana My coworker used to peel his banana upside down. Then I realized that actually, his way of doing it was better. If you squeeze the bottom of the banana like a zit (ew), it easily opens. Sometimes when you open it from the top (the stem side) it is difficult and you get banana pulp under your fingernails. If you do it from the bottom, it comes open easily. Not only that, but if you peel it down about two thirds of the way, you now have a handle (the stem) to hold it by and to easily throw it away from when you are done. Voila. 

How to Have Spreadable Peanut Butter: I always used to wonder why in the world some people stored their peanut butter in the fridge. Like butter, it is so much better when it can be smoothed easily on a piece of bread. Peanut butter from the fridge was thick and tore up the bread. The other thing I thought was gross was that natural peanut butter that my parents used to buy in the 80s. It has that oil slick on top and you would get peanut butter all over your hands trying to stir it so that you could get down to the actual peanuts. Then I started being more health conscious and I now buy the natural peanut butter...and was stirring it each time. Then Broski told me he had discovered a magic trick: stir the peanut butter once really good and put it in the fridge and the oil doesn't separate. What!?? I did that, and have never looked back. It is amazing. Perfectly stirred peanut butter every time. I recommend this peanut butter from Costco. 

How to Pour Milk: You know how it is when you pour milk from the carton and it goes glug, glug, glug? I always thought that was just because the milk was full and it was a fact of life and there was nothing that can be done about it. I was wrong. If you just turn the bottle around so that the little hole is closer to your face than the counter, it does not do the glugging thing! 

Not this way! 

This is better.

Last, I will leave you with an oldie but goodie: the egg trick. When I was a kid I was afraid that I would accidentally crack open a raw egg rather than a hard boiled one and my Dad showed me how to spin the egg to see if it spun evenly or not. If it spins evenly, it is hard boiled, as the weight is evenly distributed. If it spins wonky, it is because the liquid is sloshing around. 

Teach me more! What tricks do you use that maybe I don't know about? 

Every Quarter Counts

Some people are not comfortable talking about money. I am actually a very private person and often don't like talking about anything about myself, money included. However, I am learning that this is not always beneficial in the long run. How do we figure out how to do things or what to do if we do not seek the information and advice from others? How do we avoid the mistakes that others have made if not to talk about them? I am not saying that I am going to put my taxes online for everyone to see them, but maybe if I did someone would give me some tips to do them better! Actually, if you can give me some tips to do them better (I do them myself; your first tip is probably to hire someone else!), please let me know! 

Due to worries about finances surrounding COVID and the economy in general lately, I think this is a good time to share tips about money, be it saving, spending or investing it. I was always taught to save it, but as I have gotten older, I have learned a little about spending what I have saved! But today I will not talk about the spending portion, only the saving portion. I have heard many mind boggling stats about Americans, such as that less than 30% have more than $1,000 in savings! 

Today I want to discuss three pieces of advice I have been given and the things I have learned over the years because of them. If you know something that I don't know, please let me know. 

Never throw away free money.  I had just landed my first college job and was filling out all of the HR paperwork, including 401k documents. I had no idea what half of the terms meant and I asked a friend of my parents to tell me what boxes he though I should check. He told me that it did not really matter what fund I put my money into; what mattered what that I should put at much as I could from each paycheck into the 401k and most importantly, should at least contribute the amount the company was willing to match, otherwise I would be "throwing away free money." For example, I believe my company at the time would match dollar for dollar up to 3%. He told me that I should try to put in 10%, but if I didn't feel that was possible, that I should at least put in 3%. I did what he said and by the time I left that company after eight years, I did not miss the amount I had been putting in each month, I was fully vested and I walked away with that extra money "in my pocket" (technically it is in my retirement account, but it's still mine). 

A side note or addition to the above is that if your company has a 401k, you should put money into it. Some companies have an automatic contribution (i.e. they will put 2% of your paycheck in unless you opt out) but many require you to sign up on your own. Currently in the U.S. you are allowed to put up to $20,500.00 per year into your 401k before taxes and your employer match does not count towards this number, so it could be even more than that once the match is added. I will talk more about this specific topic in a future post but the takeaway for this post is that you should contribute something. 

What does this mean? Even if your contribution is pennies or dollars, if the company is willing to match it, you should put as much as you can! It can also be beneficial to implement some sort of similar plan with your kids to teach them to save some of their hard earned money instead of spending frivolously. For example, you can suggest that they put half of their babysitting money in an account and you will match whatever they put in there dollar for dollar. 

Compound interest is your friend. This is not a new concept, but I think it is one that is not fully explained to people in the early days, when it is the most pertinent. Did you know that if you started putting $50.00 per month into a account yielding 2% when you were 18, and then stopped putting money in at age 40, by the time you were 67, you would have about $30,000.00. Your total investment would be about $14,000.00 in this case. 

If you only starting saving your $50.00 when you were 30 and you kept putting $50.00 per month in your account until you invested $14,000.00, or were 52, then let it sit until you were 67, you would end up with about $23,000.00, over 20% less. Think about that. I used $50.00 and a low rate of 2%, but imagine your interest rate was 5%. In this case, the gap gets even wider ($100,000.00 vs $54,000.00) and if you double your total investment to $28,000.00 and assume a 5% rate you would end up with $198,000.00 vs $109,000.00. 

I think many people feel that they only have a few dollars and it is not worth it, or that they don't have any extra cash, but even if you are only putting in $5.00 or $10.00 at the beginning, it will add up eventually and I do think every penny counts. I think in most cases, you won't miss it if it's taken out beforehand, and to go back to my point number one, if you are putting in $10.00 and your employer is matching $10.00, it will add up faster than you think. 

What does this mean? Start saving as early as you can! Even if your contribution is pennies or dollars, when put in an interest bearing account early, you can reap the benefits of getting interest on your interest. But wait, what if I am already 40? In this case, it still makes sense to put as much as you possibly can in as early as possible, as you will still be able to take advantage of compounding!

The Latte Factor. This is an old concept and one I have written about several times. Basically the gist of it is that if you skipped your daily latte purchase, you could save a lot of money. The end. But seriously, if you bought a coffee from Starbucks every weekday, that would be approximately $20.00 - $25.00 dollars per week you would save. Using the example above about compounding, instead of $50.00 per month, you could be putting away $150.00 per month just by making your own coffee. The item does not have to be coffee; it could be a salad or a sandwich or a fill-in-the-blank. The bottom line is that the little things add up and probably many of them are unnecessary or frivolous and the savings now will pay off in the long run. 

What does this mean? If you think that you don't have enough extra money to put in a savings, here is where you can reassess. I am not saying that you need to give up all things good in your life. Even if you skip one latte a week (or one McDonalds hamburger, or one Uber ride or....etc.) you will now have that $5.00 a week or $20.00 a month to put into your interest bearing savings account! As you can see, each little bit counts. 

So now we have talked about three ways to save money. Do you already use some of these methods? Do you have other tips or tricks that you use to save money? Are you a spender or a saver? 

Disclaimer: The information above is solely an opinion based my own personal experience. You do you. I am not a tax and/or financial advisor; nothing in this post should be taken as investment advice. I have no fiduciary responsibility to anyone reading this post. Please consult a financial advisor for investment advice.  For my other posts regarding money, go here. 

What I Learned: Getting Financing

Last year was very hectic for me. The reason for this is that in addition to working and running a few races, I was in the market for a home. There are a lot of moving pieces involved when buying a home, especially when you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is one of the hottest places to live (and the most expensive) in the country.

I thought I would break down my search into a few posts, starting with the beginning, which was financing. Oh the joys of getting a loan. Now, I have no idea what the right or wrong way to go about this is, but I will talk about the way that I did it, and what seemed to work for me.

First, I pulled my credit report. I have heard, and I am not sure if this is true, that it is better to pull it 6 times in one month than 6 times over the course of a year. So I pulled it, knowing that the lenders would also pull it. Luckily, it was in good shape.

The next thing I wanted was a pre-approval letter. I had no idea what I was getting myself in for, but I did know that a pre-approval letter was better than a pre-qualify. With a pre-approval, the lender gets mostly all of your paperwork and then they use that to figure out how much they will be willing to lend you. This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is hard to figure out how much you can afford. I spent a lot of time on the internet plugging in numbers, but until the lender actually used my actual hard data to get an amount, I was just guessing (with the help of Google).

The second reason that it's important is that it helps to submit the pre-approval letter with your offer. This can help convince the seller that you are serious about the offer, and it will make them more comfortable that your agreement is not going to fall through due to lack of financing. In the Bay Area, your offer will most likely not get accepted without a pre-approval letter.

To get a pre-approval letter, you have to figure out who you want to try to get a letter and/or a loan from. How do you figure this out? Good question! Once again, I turned to Google (and Zillow) to find out who could give me the best rate. In addition, I asked several people who they had used and how their experience had been. I got a lot of different answers. Zillow named two internet banks and Bank of America as having the best rates. Two of my friends used Quicken (internet bank) and Bank of America.

So, I contacted one internet bank, Bank of America (who happens to be where I have had my accounts since I was a teenager) and Citibank. What happened next was this:

The internet bank asked me to fill out a form with my financial info and send it back to them. The lady was very nice and the operation seemed legitimate. I filled out the form and sent it back and got a pre-approval letter the next day.

Bank of America connected me to Texas. I finally got routed to a local agent, who barely spoke English (sorry!) and tried to talk me into getting a 5/1 arm (adjustable rate) instead of the 30 year fixed that I asked her for. She then asked me to send in about 400 different kinds of paperwork, including all of my Bank of America  bank statements. I sent them all to her and did not hear back from her for three weeks (when I called her, her message said she was on vacation).

Citibank sent me an unprofessional email with no signature or logo that looked like a 12 year old had sent it, asking for 400 different kinds of paperwork. I told them I would feel more comfortable seeing a real person and giving my documents to them and the guy blew me off.

Since the Citibank guy seemed unprofessional, I contacted a third option, a local broker, and I sent him all my 400 different kinds of paperwork. He was very helpful and even helped me run a few different scenarios, depending on my down payment and/or desired purchase price. The guy was easy to reach on the phone and answered any (dumb) questions I had throughout the entire process.

The verdict: The amount I could qualify for was less than I wanted, since they could not count bonuses or overtime unless you could show two full years and proof that it would be ongoing. Bummer. So that meant the amount I thought I could spend was not the actual amount... in addition, I found it very strange that they ask you how much you want to spend. Can't they just crunch all the numbers and then tell you what the absolute max is?

My advice: Try a bunch of different lenders. You have no commitment to them. Once you have all of your 400 documents in pdf form, you may as well send them to as many lenders as you can!

In addition, my realtor told me a few tips. (1) the big banks (BofA etc) take forever to get you an answer, sometimes meaning you lose the house because you can't get financing in time. I know this as well because I work for a big bank and I see some of the frustration over how long thing take. (2) The internet banks will give anybody a pre-approval letter and will often give you the number YOU want, rather than what you can really afford. This causes problems later when it comes to getting the actual loan. Due to this, often times sellers will not accept offers if the letter is from an internet bank.

So, there we have it, my new understanding of financing in a nutshell.

Have you gotten a home loan? What advice or tips do you have for others regarding the situation? 

*Disclaimer: I am not a professional. Any opinions I give are my own and you should do your own research before making any rash decisions. :) 

What I Learned: Etymology

I have been listening to Don't Know Much About History while doing my long runs lately, and there have been a few interesting tidbits that I have learned from it. Actually, there have been a lot of different things I have learned, relearned or remembered, and of course they are all very interesting and very educational and I can just feel myself getting smarter by the day.

However, there were a few interesting factoids that I had no idea about, and actually never thought to question them! For example, do you know where the word "sideburns" comes from?

Sideburns were first called "Burnsides", after a civil war general named Ambrose Burnside, who, as you can see below, had a pretty nice display of facial hair.

source

I also found out why "booze" is so named. It's from the Dutch word būsen, which means "to drink to excess". However, DKMAH states that it was given it's name due to a man named E. C. Booz, who was a distiller in the United States in the 19th century.

Do you know the game "rock, paper, scissors"? Do you ever call it Ro-Sham-Bo? We do. However, I never knew that there was a man named Rochambeau who was a French nobleman who participated in the revolutionary war. 

Do you ever wonder where certain words came from? Or why some things are called different words, even throughout the US? My mom's family is from Back East and they have some weird words for things, as well as pronounciations.

For instance:

Bubbler / drinking fountain
Pocketbook / purse
Cabinets / cupboard

Or there is always the coke, pop, soda debate. 

Why is that? And what do YOU call it?

What information have you learned lately that made you say "hmm"? What weird words do your friends and relatives say that make you giggle? Did you know where the word sideburns originated?

What I Learned (3): Running

I was running the other day and I was thinking about how many things I didn't know when I started running. Through much trial and error (mostly error), you end up figuring out what works for you, food wise, water wise, shoe wise and more! Obviously, I didn't have a pen and paper with me, and my brain is very similar to Swiss cheese. Therefore, once I sat down to make the list after getting home, it was much, much smaller than I had planned. However, here are the few things that did stick. So, here are a few things I have learned about running in the past several years.

It's okay to walk.

This took me a while to learn. It seems like it's a bit backwards, because usually you walk before you run, but I didn't. If I had to walk, I considered myself done. This was keeping me from running farther. If I would have just stopped to walk and recover, I could have kept going. However, since I started trail running and the hills were brutal, I realized that by walking up the hills, I can save more energy for later! The same goes for any run whether it's on the trails or the roads.

You are faster than you think. 

For a long time, I stayed at about a 10 minute per mile pace because it was comfortable and I didn't really (a) want to push myself and (b) think I could go much faster. However, I decided to try speed training (intervals) after a friend told me how hard but rewarding it was, and by doing that I realized that I was selling myself short. I was a lot faster than I gave myself credit for.

Sometimes you need a buddy. 

I am usually a solo runner. However, sometimes I run with my Dad or my friend K, and it's fun. The time goes by a lot faster, you talk the entire time and it puts the fun back in running. It makes it more of a social session with exercise, instead of a chore.

My running buddies

A bad pair of undies can be your worst enemy. 

I think this is self explanatory. However, as I have mentioned before, some people chose to go without. I am not one of them, but I do believe in the benefits of a good snug pair of undies (but not TOO snug!).

Always carry water. 

I have done the bad thing and assumed that there would be drinking fountains on the trail, or that I was "only going a few miles" so I wouldn't need a drink or that it was not as hot as it really was. Let me tell you, I believe that it is well worth it to carry water, even if you don't end up using it.

It's okay to take a rest day. 

Okay, maybe I am lying about this one, as I still have a hard time taking a day off. I do know though that I feel better, am less sore and am more ready to go the next time when I have a day of rest. It's just hard ON that day to get over the fact that I am "sitting around".

Do you call them undies, underwear, panties, knickers (or...)? What have you learned about running? Do you exercise with a buddy or solo?

What I Learned (2): The Relay

The Relay is over. I am tired. Sore. Dehydrated. And Happy. I am glad I did it. I will go over the recap in a few days, but for now, I want to say that I learned a lot from doing this. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant going in, mostly because it was going to be a new experience for me, but also because I was going to spend the weekend with strangers, doing a strange thing. I was a bit scared.

But now? I am not scared anymore. I had a good time and it was an experience I will never forget. And I learned a  lot too! Here are a few of the things I learned. 

Jonnycat's Dirty Dozen

- You run by yourself but you are not alone. Most of the race was spent running alone, since the teams all started at different times, the race tended to be a bit spread out. Sometimes you pass a few people on your run (or sometimes they pass you, but we tried not to let that happen**!) but many times you are running a pretty quiet road all by yourself. However, the van goes on the same route and stops along the way to make sure everything is going well. So you never feel like you are alone. The team is always there.

- Inside the van, everything goes. Yup, you eat in the van. You sleep in the van. Your dirty feet and socks are in the van. You laugh in the van. You sweat in the van. Everything happens in the van. And this leads to...

- A stranger can be your new best friend. You spend a lot of time in the van, talking, laughing, joking, cheering each other on, giving high fives and hugs and pats on the back. You get to know these people in less than 48 hours. A bond is formed pretty quickly. I now have five new friends.

- Support is a multifaceted word. My group was awesome. If one of us was having trouble, the group would meet the runner at each mile with water, cheering and dancing and doing whatever it took to keep the runner's spirits up. Sometimes we even ran with each other for a little while. Also, I learned that the little net inside of your running shorts has a few different, interesting names that I was not aware of.

- Talking about certain body parts is par for the course. All body parts are open for discussion. Body glide goes on these parts in massive amounts. This is normal.

- There are many Hills. This race pretty much went up, then down, then up, then down...the entire time. I ran 4 legs and all of them had hills. There were no flat runs. That is the same for all my van mates. We had a couple of "easy" legs, but they too had hills. If you are not a hill runner, this makes things very hard. Even if you are a hill runner, it is difficult.

-**And many Kills. Kills also are hard. In case you don't know, a kill is when you pass another runner. Some of the other vans had tallies on the side of their van. We did not. We kept that info in our heads. Since the other relay teams are so spread out, on some legs (my 2 a.m. leg for instance) you don't see one other runner the entire time. On others, you see a dozen. So we tried our best to pass who we could, even though we were not running this race competitively. It still brought an element of challenge and competition to our team, between us and the other teams, as well as between the members of our van.

As you can see, I learned a lot. Team sports can be difficult because you have to count on other members of your team. But also, because of this very thing, team sports can be great. You have someone to count on and you have someone counting on you. This creates a bond that can't be broken and an element of fun you just can't get by yourself.

Do you/did you play any team sports and if so, do you like it more or less than individual sports? Do you know an alternate name for the liner that goes inside your shorts (you can privately email me if it's not fit for public view)? Did you learn anything new this weekend?