I have been getting to work a half an hour before my shift starts, using the time to work on my journal writing for the website. It allows me to write much more to give a expansive view of the day, unlike my short twitter updates. Since I arrive at work before sunrise, I do my work in the parking lot in my car. I have one of those convertible portfolio cases that you can slide on the steering wheel of the car. You can store your laptop, pens, and pad in it. It works well and I have been using it for over a year.
After work I went shopping for this week’s groceries. The rest of the day I cooked and did household chores like laundry and dishes. I didn’t have much free time for myself. Read to the kids and went to bed.
This has been my typical Tuesday since I was required to work from the office. If I push my chores to another day, it just avalanches to other days. So, it is easier for me to have one exhausting day than have two.
Arrived to work at 5:30 am and started to complete my journal entries for the website before I clocked in. I enjoying getting up early in the morning. You don’t get any distraction from anyone or the world. It’s just you and what ever you want to do. There is very few people up so you can get things done without being interrupted.
I was welcome home by my 1961 Betty Crocker’s Outdoor Cook Book. The start of the book covers types of grills, fuel, and how to start and maintain the fire. It was interesting on how things are done back then compared to how we do things now. Like the use of asbestos gloves to protect hands and odorless pain thinner as lighter fluid. For choosing what grill is right for you section, they had a larger types of selection than we have today. My favourite grill was the do it yourself wheel barrel grill. It’s great for the house because you can place it in your shed in adverse weather.
The recipes are things I would eat, and they placed them in a themed meal plan. You don’t need to worry about what goes with what. So far I love it. The book is used and has character. I should do a full write up on this exquisite book.
Second trip to Cougar Mountain to hike to Wilderness Peak. My daughter (7) kept a good pace. On the way up it snowed a few times. She loved it. Said it the forest even prettier. We located the geocache then proceeded up to the peak to sit down and enjoy some hot soup on this cold day. The view from the top is covered in trees, so the view is the forest. On the trip down we picked up another cache that I previously found but she hadn’t. We got down to the trailhead by noon.
At home I spend most of the day with my son. Playing around with Legos and creating games with them. I made Pot Stickers of dinner. It was a nice treat after a long day hiking.
I was up at 5:30 am to get ready for the trip to Cougar Mountain to find the last of the geocaches in the area. Ate a light breakfast and packed the car while my daughter slept. She looked tired so I woke her up at 7:30 am to allow her to get some extra rest before the hike. Today’s hike shouldn’t be too hard. The last part of the hike will be steep, but it should take about 15 minutes to get to the top and back to the top.
The trip was a success, we located all 3 geocaches. She found 2 very quickly and one I found with little effort. Heading back home in the car, we talked about the adventure we had just experienced. She was so excited she asked to go tomorrow and do some more.
The only one I had left on the mountain was one that is located next to the peak, and it would be a hard hike up. She said with determination that she would make it to the top. I said okay.
On the return trip back home picked up items at H-Mart and Daiso.
Once home we cleaned out the backpacks and prepared for tomorrow’s journey. I took a light nap and played board and card games with the kids.
Went to bed at my normal time to get ready for tomorrows hike up Wilderness Peak in Cougar Mountain.
Yesterday I ate too much meat products. Linguiça for lunch and Ribs for dinner. My body feels numb and kind of bloated. Like when you eat too much food on Thanksgiving or after the Christmas Feast. This morning I made a large Smoothy for breakfast and ate vegies as a snack throughout the day. By noon I felt much better. I am planning to go for a hike. I have a just a few geocaches to get on Cougar Mountain to complete locating them all at the location. My daughter wants to come with me, so we packed her bag. I am not sure how she is going to feel waking up in the morning early, but if she is up to it, I would love for her to come. After the kids went to bed, I made a small fire to just unwind from the week and plan the route we will take to find the last of the geocaches.
It was a slow start to the day. The bed was warm, and I didn’t want to leave. So, I just laid in bed reading. I finally got up to start work by going into the home office. Once up I was finally going. I did all my chores and work. Another typical Thursday.
Tonight’s dinner was Ribs and baked potatoes. It came out really good. I had to pull some food away from the kids, so we had a plate for my wife to have something for dinner when she arrived from work later tonight.
I did some more creative thinking for some topics for articles and podcasts. I am thinking of breaking the podcasts into three parts. Local activities in Seattle, Camping/Hiking, and Exploring Washington State.
Or I could just author an article and then discuss it on the podcast. It’s still up in the air.
It rained most of the day and I wasn’t able to go outside and get out of the house except to drop/pick up the kids from school.
The minivan studio is setup pretty well. I do most of my writing or finishing work from there when picking up the kids. So, adding a recorder wasn’t that much work.
I woke up this morning full of energy. I arrived at work 20 minutes early and started to planning topics to write about on the site.
A new tool from Microsoft called Loop was released today for beta testing. It looks very useful, and I will see if it will help with my job and personal projects.
Another tool I use is textExpander. I took their offer to be a beta tester for their Android app. I am excited because this will allow me to do more writing with just a foldable keyboard and my Surface Duo 2 phone or tablet. Great for when I go solo camping and want to write without carrying a laptop.
I use textExpander at work mostly. It saves a lot of time on my responses to clients. It’s a lot of the same thing so I just make snip-it and a abbreviation for it. When typing I just type the corresponding abbreviation and fill the snip-it info instantly. Highly recommended for repetitive work.
At home I just relaxed and watched some TV and read up on some new devices the company is releasing.
I went to bed at my normal time to get a good night’s sleep.
Work went well. Still writing a training manual. The weather cleared up at the end of my shift. There is a corner office that has been vacant for over 2 years, I’m thinking of moving in and claiming Squatter’s Rights. It’s a nice office, much better than the cube I am in. You can see the sun rise over the Cascade’s. I might make this to my personal breakroom if they say no.
On the trip to and from work, I tested a new mic mount in the car. It’s small and simple, just a visor clip with a magnet on it. I attached a metal plate with two-sided tape and it just attached to the mount. I like it and the mike is much closer to my mouth then when it was on the dash. No more talking loud when recording.
When I arrived home, I had little time to myself. Just a lot of cooking and cleaning. Before bed I played Pokémon with my son. We are still on the learning stages to play it. It’s funny that I use to work for the company that use to produce the game in the early 2000s. I had access to cases of cards and opted to give them away to a school my mother in-law worked at instead of playing the game myself. I had no interest in games at the time. Now with children, I find it very enjoyable.
Spent the day working on a training manual and meetings. My mind was numb, and I needed to take a nap. I was tired most of the day. Just kind of bored at work. It rained for most of the day.
Up at 6 am to start this sunny day off right. Ate a light breakfast and headed out to pick some items at Costco. Once back home, I attached the bike rack to the car and loaded up all the bikes to head to Enatai Bach Park to start a trip on the I-90 trail heading towards the city. We road partially across I-90 bridge westerly bound. Once we got to Mercer Island the trail was detoured onto a busy road that we didn’t feel comfortable with the kids to be on. So we turned back around and headed home. On the way back I ordered pizza, so that it would be delivered home about the same time we arrived. It was perfect timing; the pizza was delivered 1 minute after we got there.
After eating, I watched Gravity Falls with the kids and took a nap with a cat on my lap.
Before sunset, I prepped the fire pit for tonight’s fire. Tonight, we have roasted marshmallows!
Once the kids went inside to go to bed, I stayed up watching the fire go down and the stars go across the sky. I’m reading Tales of the South Pacific. A book I have been reading on and off for a few years. I just need to finish it. I enjoy reading it, but I get seduced by technical training manuals and start reading those instead. I attempted to cheat by watching Rogers & Hammerstein South Pacific, but I can’t get over the no picture (blank screen) intro (just instrumental soundtrack) and some very distracting colour filters they used. It pulls me away from the story and I can’t stop thinking if it is a sinking issue or tv problem. I just lose focus away from the movie and try to figure out the meaning of the colour changes in the scene. What does it mean? I just can’t finish watching it and I love watching Rogers & Hammerstein movies. The Sound of Music is on my Top 10 list of favourite movies.
Progress Report: Since I have made the decision to take a picture of the day, I have been getting outside more as intended. I will be pushing myself to take more pictures like I used to. I do go out on hikes and camping trips, I just stopped taking a picture or two of the trips. Since the days are getting warmer and have a minivan, I will be taking more trips.
Life in the Pacific NW 