Vacationing, 2021 Style

Posted on September 21, 2021 by mfna

I am constantly being reminded of how much things have changed since I was younger.

Indeed, I remember flying as a kid, and having a meal on a tray served to me, accompanied by metal utensils, all as part of my ticket. Flight attendants were called stewardesses and were glamorous and professional. Airplanes had smoking sections, and one could actually walk up to the gate, show a boarding pass and enter the airplane.

Well, that’s all gone. And so is carefree vacation travel, it seems.

I have returned from my trip to four of California’s national parks, and while I had an extremely enjoyable time, the reminders that today’s reality is far removed from the past were everywhere.

I have taken to mentioning the “triple-whammy” that affected this trip: COVID-19, heat and wildfires.

Arriving in Fresno, I learned that the area (the central valley of California) had been experiencing a record-setting 66 straight days of 100°+ temperatures. The heat and lack of rainfall or mountain water runoff has resulted in drought and wildfires. A look at the map here suggests the entire Pacific northwest is ablaze (the map in the link is updated continuously). The rampant fires had two immediate effects: A smoky haze over the valley (which, I was told, could affect the taste of crops), and the closure of all of California’s national forests.

But once I got into the higher elevations, the sky was clear, strikingly blue, and the parks were tremendous! But COVID-19 had wreaked havoc on the park workers. Visitor centers were closed, as were restaurants and a number of facilities. Earlier closures had caused the workforce to find work elsewhere, and the slow re-opening of the parks found jobs unfilled. In Yosemite, for example, only the hotels (the Wawona and the Ahwanee) had open restaurants, and the Yosemite Lodge’s eatery was the only other dining choice.

Ahwahnee Hotel. Built in 1926 at a cost of $1.25 million.

Still, it was the scenery I was after, and scenery I got! Having visited Yosemite in the winter of 2015, it was quite a change to see it in summer. The Tunnel View was spectacular, despite that lack of water in Bridalveil Falls.

The famous Tunnel View scene, entering Yosemite National Park, with El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls

The giant Sequoia trees were impressive, even though I found photographing them a challenge (maybe different lenses might have helped?). Some of the oldest living organisms on the planet, hardy and majestic.

It took 32 of us humans to circle the trunk of the General Sherman, estimated to be 2,500 years old.

Kings Canyon reminded me of a lesser-known Yosemite. The granite formations were similar, and some of the scenery every bit as lovely.

Kings Canyon

But Death Valley was the place I wanted to visit most. Zabriskie Point, in particular. I remember having a (vinyl) record album of the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film of the same name.

Album cover for Zabriskie Point soundtrack

I never saw the movie (it can’t be found online today!) but the music was early Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead and John Fahey. For some reason, images of Zabriskie Point have always appealed to me. I wanted to see for myself.

Our bus descended down from the heights, and I saw the elevation markers dropping: 8,000 feet, 7,000 feet, 6,000 feet…

Before the trip was done, I found myself at -282 feet. The lowest elevation point in the United States, only about twenty miles from Zabriskie Point. Choosing one photo out of the many I took was quite a challenge. I may change my mind, but here it is:

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley NP, CA.

The author at Badwater Basin. Sunglasses, wide-brimmed hat required!

Badwater Basin, Death Valley. The lowest elevation (282 feet below sea level) in the U. S.

Suffice it to say, it was HOT. Some people say that it’s not so bad due to the absence of humidity. Still, it was HOT.

Furnace Creek (Death Valley) Visitor Center. At noon.

Another notch on the scenic vacation belt!

A Return To (Almost) Normal

Posted on August 27, 2021 by mfna

A week from now I hope to be traveling through some of America’s national parks again. There was a PBS series a few years ago by Ken Burns, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” available for purchase in various formats.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve written before (I think) that on my 60th birthday I drove to Great Falls Park and purchased a lifetime senior pass.

National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass for 60+

I still maintain that was the best birthday present I could have given myself!

The COVID pandemic caused innumerable lockdowns and travel restrictions. Cruise lines halted operations, and getting into and out of countries became a game of chance. The nastiness isn’t over yet, but there seems to be some semblance of normalcy returning.

I said, “Some.” I have been alerted that I will need to wear a face diaper (mask) during my air travels, and when required in public areas. My trip will take me to California, so I can expect to have to wear the darn thing a lot, despite being fully vaccinated. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to let it be a deal-killer, because my travel bug has bitten me, and I must go.

This will be my seventh Road Scholar trip. A few months ago, I saw that the company had once again started their in-person study tours (like everyone else, they had gone to Zoom during the lockdowns). The trip is titled, “Four Jewels” and encompasses Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Death Valley. Believe it or not, it was the Death Valley mention that sold me!

Road Scholar image: Death Valley

I have already begun my preparations. I’m making sure my camera is fully charged, I have plenty of storage (a 32GB SD card has done me well on other photo trips), I bought a new pair of 5.11 Decoy Convertible pants (lightweight, SPF 50+, packable) and am deciding what apparel I need (weather in the parks can go from hot to cold in the span of hours). But that’s part of the fun!

I expect to have photos and observations to post here upon my return. Stay tuned.

Active Melody

Posted on August 17, 2021 by mfna

Much to my surprise and amazement, I’ve found an online guitar instruction site that has actually improved my guitar playing! That site is ActiveMelody.com. I have toyed with a number of sites, and found many of them helpful, but none quite seemed to fit my style.

One site I visited often was the Blues Guitar Institute. It has some terrific content, but I was put off by its $14.99/month ($99.99 annual) fee. Some terrific free sites, such as JustinGuitar and Marty Schwartz’s lessons are great for quick lessons, but many of these sites are focused on learning songs. I wanted something with a little more structure (but not TOO much), and then I found Brian Sherrill.

Brian Sherrill of activemelody.com

Brian doesn’t promote himself. In fact, I didn’t know his last name until I did some searching online. Which is kind of cool, because at ActiveMelody, it’s just Brian and his lessons.

Key to his approach is that Brian explains the “why” of certain guitar playing. Yes, it’s music theory, but he downplays that aspect, choosing instead to show how to play. The when and why part of it fall in place gradually.

At first, I was reluctant to pay ($89.00 annually). There is a forum on the site, and I joined to nose around a bit and investigate. One of the posters there made the observation that the annual charge was roughly what one would pay for a single in-person lesson with a tutor. Since I’d done that not long ago, I had to admit he had a point, so I signed up.

One of the best decisions I’ve made. After a year of COVID lockdowns, it felt nice to get some structure to my playing. Since I’ve been able to work from home, which means I can grab a guitar any time and spend a few minutes practicing, having lessons to practice has been a great help.

Membership also provides me access to tablature (TAB) downloads, jam tracks and “part two” of lessons when available. The PDF downloads have been a terrific aide, and I’m only now beginning to take advantage of the jam tracks. Well worth the $89!

Brian doesn’t know (and likely doesn’t care) that I’m posting this. But I’m quite happy with activemelody.com and confess to being a satisfied customer!

The Age-Old Problem of Old Age

Posted on July 24, 2021 by mfna

Having just celebrated my 30th year without drugs or alcohol,

Fancy 30 Year Medallion

and with my 70th birthday fast approaching, I’ve decided I am not prepared to go gentle into that good night. With my blood sugar now an issue, the best treatment I’ve found, according to experts, is diet and exercise. Well, I refuse to completely omit some foods from my diet (after all, I don’t want to live forever, and I don’t want it to feel like I am, either), but exercise is something I can do something about.

When I was a teenager I was a passenger in a car that hydroplaned into a tree at about 45 mph and as a result, suffered a compression fracture in my spine. Six weeks in a body cast during the August-September time frame was no picnic, let me assure you! Doctors told me I would likely have arthritis and rheumatism by the time I was in my mid-twenties.

There were a few setbacks, but overall, my back didn’t hinder me at all. In my forties, after having shaken the alcohol demon, I started running. I thought it was easy and cheap (all you need are some shoes and shorts, right?). Traveling a lot on business meant I could go for a run outside my hotel, and it became a way of sightseeing, too!

I ran my first marathon when I was 54. The next year (2006) I ran my best marathon, in 4:32:56. Not an earth-shaking time, but that’s a 10:25 minute-per-mile pace, and I’m quite happy with it.

Over time, my hip (and knee) began to slow me down. Before COVID-19 shut down the world, I was having issues completing even a 5K distance without pain. I stopped trying during the lockdown.

But I’m back at it. I went out today for the second time this week. OK, I know a layoff takes a while to come back from, so I’m perfectly fine with being slow and having to take walk breaks. I finished a 5K distance today in 47:26, for an average of 14:42/mile. Which I actually find a bit surprising. I thought i’d be slower!

During the run, I started a checklist of things I have attempted to remedy my hip/back/knee problem. Here’s a partial list (there may be others I haven’t yet remembered):

Physical therapy. Several times, with different therapists
Chiropractic
Yoga
Trans-dermal Electronic Stimulation (TENS)
Theragun massage gun
Shoe inserts
Adjusting pace/shoes

I do not have the time or money to dedicate to treatment such as professional athletes receive. I have gone to a physical therapist who trains many (shout out to Dr. Keri Webb and Resurgent Sports!), though.

Ten years ago, I took a distance training course through the Potomac River Running store chain. During one of our training runs, I remember my coach Caitlyn telling me to hold up and end my run. She had seen a “hitch in my giddy-up,” as she put it. Yes, it’s been an issue for quite a while. When I was younger, I could tough it out and run through it.

But the plain truth of the matter is that as I’ve gotten older, the injury of my youth has finally caught up to me.

I’m still going to try. I need the exercise and I just like being out on the trails and paths. I just won’t be setting any records. Still.

Summertime Blues

Posted on July 22, 2021 by mfna

Despite the somber sounding title, this is an upbeat post. In fact, it’s a call-back to what may be considered one of the top summer songs of the rock era. Eddie Cochran wrote and recorded this anthem of teenage angst and frustration in 1958. I first heard it performed on record by the band Blue Cheer,

The album cover for Vincebus Eruptum, by Blue Cheer (1968)

and then shortly after by the Who (the version recorded on the Live At Leeds album is tremendous).

Live At Leeds double-LP album cover by the Who, 1970

It’s a pretty simple song: The standard I, IV, V chord structure of blues and many rock songs.

So why post an article about it?

Realizing that almost a month has gone by since my last post, I felt the need to update the blog. And since I’ve been playing a lot of guitar this year, and it’s summertime, it all seemed to fit. In fact, I’m pretty upbeat about my guitar playing of late as well, and the blues has been a big part of that.

There are times when I feel playing nothing but blues guitar is a bit limiting, so I keep going back to some non-blues pieces I enjoy playing. Songs from artists such as America, David Crosby, the Allman Brothers, and the vastly underrated (in my opinion) Love.

I suppose most everyone remembers the summers of their youth as the “best of times.” In my case, the years 1967-1969 were not only the best of my time, but were pivotal years in modern history and culture. There was the “Summer of Love” (1967) and Woodstock (1969).

The 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Festival logo

Yes, there was turmoil (the riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fiasco at the Democrat Convention in 1968), but the music generated spoke powerfully of the social issues of the day. Sentiment against the ongoing war in Vietnam had divided the USA, and many songs reflected this division.

Every time I pick up my guitar and play a song from the summers of my youth, I am transported back in time to those days, where I wander with a smile on my face and memories that live forever. Summertime blues? Never!

Thank You. Welcome. Good-bye.

Posted on June 26, 2021 by mfna

The original SPAM – Shoulder of Pork and Ham.

Spam has been around almost since the Internet went live. In fact, I’d probably wager the first spam message was sent the day after the Internet went live! And I’d likely lose that wager. According to Digital Trends, the first spam message was probably sent in 1978 over the Internet precursor, ARPANET. Six years ago, in 2015, spam traffic accounted for some 85% of all Internet traffic. Whew!

Spam email isn’t news and it isn’t new. So, why am I writing about it now? Simply for the fact that spammers today seem to have adopted a common practice: Sending emails masquerading as “welcome” messages. In essence, the unsolicited email arrives in one’s inbox and reads something like this: “Welcome to the XYZ slimy product and service company. We value your privacy and respect your time, so we won’t pester you needlessly. If you wish to unsubscribe from our mailing, please click here,” with the “here” containing a link. Which one should absolutely not, ever, never click!

The warped humor I find in these mails is the opening assertion – a “welcome” message, as if I’d actually gone to so-and-so’s web site and signed up for something. Then, as if the message was responding to this ridiculous assumption, the smooth language meant to assuage and fears and calm the recipient down. Many of these bogus emails contain some sort of “legalese” text suggesting one can read their privacy terms and so on. Again, never, ever click on a link in a spam message.

The “unsubscribe” offer is exactly the opposite. By clicking to “unsubscribe” to email one never subscribed to in the first place, is a guarantee that your email address will be validated and then sold to spammers worldwide. You might as well close your email account now, because if you think you get a lot of spam now, be prepared for the tsunami…

By now you’d have thought most people would understand this, but the mere fact these spam messages continue says two things: (a) There must still be gullible people in the world, and (b) the cost of sending these messages by the thousands (millions?) is so low that it is made up for by a very small percentage of people clicking on the links in them.

It wasn’t my intent to make a product recommendation, but it occurred to me now, so here it is: I have been using a software program called SpamSieve since it first came out in 2002!

Rein in your spam with SpamSieve

I’ve run it on every Mac I’ve owned since, and it has never failed, never caused problems, and continues to be updated nearly twenty years later. It cost $30 and has paid for itself many times over. Macworld called it a “must-have spam filter,” and I agree. One can “train” it to a wildly specific degree, or set it up to use its defaults. Either way, it’s unobtrusive (starts automatically when the email program launches) and never shows its “face” until an update is available.

All in all, in this day of inboxes overflowing with spam, it’s nice to have something that will just stand guard and move it aside until one is ready to give the junk a once-over and delete it permanently. Maybe that’s why I find these “welcome” messages less than unwelcome.

A Throwback Vacation

Posted on May 21, 2021 by mfna

When my father retired to Sarasota, Florida in the late 1980s, he quickly grew tired of the summer weather there and began spending summers in North Carolina. Beech Mountain is just across the Tennessee border, in the northwest corner of the state, off the Blue Ridge Parkway and nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountain range. Every year, he’d rent a house or chalet and spend six or eight weeks relishing the milder summer weather.

Boone is 17 miles southeast of Beech Mountain

It turns out Beech Mountain is a day’s drive from Northern Virginia. I would routinely spend a week visiting with my dad, taking my daughter at times, and we’d enjoy the food, the sights, the attractions and the free lodging! Dad passed away in 2005. I don’t recall how many years it had been since he’d made the trip, so it became just a memory.

Along comes COVID. The cruises and airlines are shut down and after a year of working from home, I felt the need to get away. Besides, I have so much vacation time built up, I need to burn some. What could I do? I’d been to Davis, WV just a year or so ago, so that didn’t appeal to me. Then it hit me: I could drive to Beech Mountain and do like dad. I went online and found a nice small place that was available and rented it for a week.

My fortunes have been good: Memorial Day is still a week away, so the summer tourist season hasn’t been in full swing, yet. I spent a day exploring Grandfather Mountain, and another roaming around Boone and Blowing Rock. The latter so named because of its interesting rock formation when the wind from below seems to blow upwards!

It’s kind of like Old Home Week. Many of the places I knew are still there; the venerable Fred’s General Mercantile is still the center of town, and Fred Pfohl is still owner and proprietor.

South entrance to Fred’s

The Alpen Inn and the ski resort are still there, as is the Famous Brick Oven Pizza.

Still serving after 25 years

It’s been so long since I was last here, visits to Grandfather Mountain and Blowing Rock were like seeing them for the first time. Both have seen major improvements.

View from near the pinnacle

Exactly one mile above sea level

It’s been a good week. I stopped at the Edelweiss restaurant on the way and had a bountiful Schweinshaxe and then found the little condo I’d rented to be perfectly suited to my needs. Comforts of home, with a view to match.

Perfect as a home base, and perfect as a “home away from home.” I’m glad I made the trip!

On This Day in 2021

Posted on May 3, 2021 by mfna

Nothing happened.

The Occupant of the White House kept America’s credit card in his pocket and didn’t spend money (that we know of). The Washington Nationals, as a result of a four game winning streak, moved into a first place tie with the NY Mets. But they’re only 24 games into a 162 game season. And their record is 12-12. (It is fun to watch future hall-of-famer Max Scherzer pitch, though).

No riots have been reported, and COVID-19-20-21-22 is not the leading story in the news. Oh, the rule makers are still trying to play it for all it’s worth, but it’s more and more obvious it’s a “plan-demic” as opposed to a pandemic.

Wait. Hold the phone. It just hit the news wire: Bill and Melinda Gates have announced they are ending their marriage. First it was Jeff Bezos, now Bill Gates. I guess the pitfall to being the richest man in the world is that marriage is unsustainable. I doubt this will affect many outside their circle.

All my computers, cars and appliances are functioning normally. All my guitars are strung and playable. I get my daily exercise and have now been twice vaccinated. In two weeks, I’ll be on vacation. Today, nothing happened.

But I felt like writing about it. 🤓

Change Is A-Coming

Posted on April 8, 2021 by mfna

This past year has been almost a daily re-hash of wake, coffee, work, exercise, eat and sleep. Rinse and repeat. So, it’s with a bit of excitement that I find myself all of a sudden involved with several new projects that have grabbed my attention.

In addition to adding a humidifier to my guitar room, I’ve subscribed to online guitar lessons from ActiveMelody. With hundreds (or thousands) of online lessons to choose from, I found this one addressing the kind of guitar playing I’m interested in. I am always hesitant to purchase online anything, but as one person on the site’s forum put it, a year’s subscription costs only a little more than a couple of in-person lessons. A good point, given that I spent a year with in-person lessons that cost much more than I paid for a year of tabs, downloadable jam tracks, and video lessons I can access whenever I wish. I am enjoying it so far!

The other project that has me all a-twitter began as the germ of an idea when I discovered that my favorite guitar forum might be lapsing into disuse. It’s a long story I won’t go into now, but this site has a “sister” site and the idea is to just have everyone move into one. The problem I (and some others) have, is that I don’t like the sister site!

So I got the idea of seeing how difficult it might be to create an alternate forum. I already have a domain and a site (this one), and checking with my ISP, found that I had plenty of storage and bandwidth, and that I could run a forum — perhaps as a subdomain to this (but more on that later. Maybe.).

I began researching forum software. There’s a lot of it available, both commercial and free. Side note: I believe forums are one of the oldest concepts enabled by the Internet. We used to have “bulletin board systems” (BBS) before the Internet. A forum is just a newer form of BBS. Since I participate in a number of forums (fora?) I started looking into what software they were using. A lot of cream rose to the top in short order. Here are some that I found.

xenForo. This is a commercial product. $160 for a license if you self-host it. $55 every year thereafter. A lot of sites I visit have moved to this platform.
phpBB. Many software packages proclaim they are #1, but in this case, phpBB may be correct. The software has been around since 2000, and it’s 100% free!
Discourse. This is very modern software, “designed for the next 10 years of the Internet.” Their business model suggests paying them to host your forum, but the software is free. Being modern, it automatically reformats for smart devices as well as browsers.
vBulletin. Another popular commercial package.$249 to purchase, or a monthly hosting place from $15 per month and up.

I looked at some others, but these were the standouts. There are plenty of review sites, and I found this one lists all of the above, with comments. Wikipedia has a table comparing forum software capabilities. Not wanting to shell out dollars for a proof-of-concept, I decided to see what some of the free packages offer. I downloaded DIscourse and installed it on my Linux server, and then I fetched phpBB and installed it on my Mac. Yes, that’s right, I put a software forum on my Mac!

At first, I was hesitant to install on my Mac, because with all the needed components, I thought it might chew up too much disk space. Wow, was I mistaken!

Based on php, the scripting language designed for the web, it wasn’t necessary to install, because Macs already ship with it. I just made sure it was up to date. Years ago I found a free web server alternative to Apache (which is bundled with every Mac, but I find difficult to set up) called Abyss Web Server from a company called Aprelium. I’ve used in for years, and it’s solid and feature-filled. All I needed was a database, so I downloaded SQLite3 and created an empty database. The install was a snap, and I began to build a forum. I downloaded and installed a theme I liked, a language pack for American English (British English is the default) and even poked a hole through my router so that a couple of people I invited could look at it.

Well, that was a fun couple of days. Now to my ISP…

In conversing with one of their staff (maybe the only one — she’s been with the company since before I became a customer — and that was 25 years ago!) she informed me I could install phpBB without a problem, and that she created a sub-domain so that I could add the forum without clobbering this site. It’s done. Now, my next step is to take what I’ve learned locally and start thinking globally!

YES!

Unsanity

Posted on March 3, 2021 by mfna

I don’t update this site on a regular schedule; I do so whenever the mood strikes. I debated making this post for a day or two before actually sitting down to write, and if it weren’t for the fact I was notified of some necessary site maintenance, might have let the moment pass.

Yesterday (March 32, 2021) was the birthday of Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel, known worldwide by his pen name: Dr. Seuss (in truth, he was never a doctor). It was also Read Across America Day, chosen specifically to coincide with Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Geisel authored 60 books, which sold upwards of 600 million copies, and were translated into 20 languages (source: Wikipedia).

As a kid, I remember reading his books, their rhyming, almost-doggerel and bendy, twisty figures spanning pages and telling stories that were both lighthearted and childish as well as morality tales. Horton Hears a Who!‘s moral was: A person’s a person, no matter how small.

The same “Horton” (an elephant) reprised his gentle, caring role in Horton Hatches The Egg. The moral of this story is about keeping one’s word. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. . . . An elephant’s faithful, one hundred per cent!”

Dr. Seuss’s honors include two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, the Inkpot Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, he was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (ibid).

All of this sounds perfectly deserving of the acclaim and honors bestowed on Geisel, during his life and after his death. So why then, is this post entitled, “Unsanity?”

There are other uses for this term. I chose it because “insanity” doesn’t seem to even begin to describe what’s going on in the U. S. A. and by inference, the rest of the world today. There is a concerted effort to rewrite history, and a growing “cancel culture” has arisen that seeks to airbrush (or worse) elements of the American experience from all media and mention. Statues of Founding Fathers have been toppled Taliban-like, posts and articles have been “fact checked” and blocked from social media, and even upcoming social media site Parler was “de-platformed” by Amazon Web Services, causing the site to go completely offline for weeks until it could find another hosting service.

All of this reeks of a world gone mad. America is supposed to be the “shining city on a hill,” as Ronald Reagan quoted in his farewell address. A beacon of hope and freedom. The Statue of Liberty beckoning those “yearning to breathe free.” So, what happened?

The Loudoun County, Virginia public school system (the county in which I currently live) has determined that “after studying” Geisel’s books and tearing them apart under the guise of “social justice,” they now are deemed racist in nature and should no longer be the “focus” of the Read Across America Day. Right.

This comes right on the heels of a decision by the Hasbro Toy Company to remove the “Mr.” and “Mrs.” designations from their Potatohead toys (point of historical fact: When I was a kid, a real potato was used as the subject one plugged in the articles – eyes, glasses, hands, feet, etc.). Really? IT’S A POTATO, folks!

It would be easy to say these “issues” and items being promulgated today are insane. But that’s an easy out. It goes beyond sane or insane. It’s UNSANE!

Running FROM Office

everyone is entitled to my opinion