Monday, April 30, 2018

Misty Monday (CA18_09)

Brain cancer is...

...happy.

The temperature is dropping, and snow is predicted for the next two days.  Thanks for crossing your fingers that the snow really will find us!

We're tucked in, trying out that neatly stacked firewood.


Darrell is so happy today.  We found Thai food for lunch, essential for long trips. As he dug into his Pad Thai, he remarked,  "I have to go home tomorrow.  Oh wait!  No I don't!"

Happy Darrell means happy Andi.  As you may recall from earlier posts, I married a bear (click here or here if you'd like a refresher).

Carved bears are ubiquitous in Big Bear.  (Yes, you see ours in the fireplace picture above.)  Today after Thai in the Village, Darrell found his favorite carved bear.

Uncanny, isn't it?  It makes me happy.

We hope you are having a happy Monday too.



Sunday, April 29, 2018

Sundays Are for Midden Searches (CA18_08)

Brain cancer is...


...so glad the Szabos came up for the weekend.

This morning, we shared with the Szabos the Woodland Interpretive trail (above).  Slightly out of view (below) is "Old Gray Back," the highest peak in Southern California, Mount Gorgonio.


This time on the Woodland Trail, the highlight was midden searching. 

This marked midden...

...taught us that wood rats are consummate builders.

Wood rats (or pack rats)  make mansions out of available materials.  Their homes include many entrances, exits, and interior spaces.  Darrell and I appreciated this midden a couple days ago, but today as a foursome we watched for other middens. We found eight! 

Here's an example of an unmarked midden:
We were amazed. It was a great lesson that living beings work hard to make life work, whether we humans pay attention or not.  The PCT hikers above us, the woodrats below us...what next?

If you don't need to give pause to think about wood rats, feel free to check out the slide show of the last 24 hours of our adventures:

Click here for slideshow.

Thanks for sending us evidence of your adventures in return.  Happy Sunday!

(Photo credits:  Many photos by Geoff and Beth.)

Adventure Update

Melanie and Gail are enjoying their Canadian adventure as we speak.  Niagara Falls?  The photo is spectacular; we can't imagine the live experience.



Adventure on, Sisters!



Saturday, April 28, 2018

PCT Connections (CA18_Day 7)

Brain cancer is...

...connecting with the PCT.

You know the Pacific Crest Trail, right?  It's a hiking trail that goes from Baja to Canada, like this:

Source:  Alltrails.com


We got interested in the PCT when Summer recommended the book Wild .  It's a first-person narrative by a woman who hiked much of the trail alone.  The author, Cheryl Strayed, painted such gorgeous word pictures, and it was such a great adventure tale, that the book kept us talking for a long time.  Beth and Barb loved it too.

Guess what?  You can hike up and join the PCT from Big Bear.  The day we got our adventure pass, that's what Darrell and I did.  You saw a couple pics in the Adventure Pass post, but here's one more:


We entered a new world when we hiked up to the crest.  We met legit hikers, including this nice person, who started in Baja and plans on hiking all the way to Canada.



We'd never talked to a PCT hiker before, and now we can't escape them.  Last night at dinner, three PCT hikers who came down from the trail for a hot meal and a night in a hotel struck up a conversation with us.  They asked for a ride back to the trail come morning.  We said yes.  (Okay I said yes.)

Darrell was pretty sure we might die.  However,  we live to tell the tale.

"Dude's" walking pole doubles as a Go Pro.

Here we all are at the trail head this morning.  What a great chance to talk with awesome people.  They were suitably impressed by Darrell's GBM story, and each told their own cancer stories.  Inescapable.

It was also a great chance to really learn about a whole new world, one occurring just two miles up the mountain from us.  They asked questions like, "You don't know about the animal cages?"  "You don't know about the resort at Mile 260?"  How cool is that?

They promised to text pictures along the way.

After surviving the adventure, Darrell paid me a high compliment:  "You make my life interesting!"

Yay for the PCT!  Yay for connections!  Yay for an interesting life!



Friday, April 27, 2018

Fridays Are for Faucets and Forests (CA18_06)

Brain cancer is...


...a plumbing wizard.

Above you see a rare sight:  Darrell reading directions. I am not suggesting a causal connection, but the new kitchen faucet looks great and works well.

And then we hiked the Woodland Trail.  It's an interpretive trail, so we studied the brochure and numbered sites to understand what we were seeing.  We learned so much! 
Here's one highlight.  This is a Jeffrey Pine, the common pine of the area:

That's a tall tree, right?  Now check out the close up:
All those holes, all the way up, are the work of the thrifty Acorn Woodpecker, who drills holes and then stuffs them full of acorns for the lean season. 

Oh, all right! Yes, we did hear and see the Acorn Woodpecker.  It looks like this:
Our work here is done.  Happy weekend!













Thursday, April 26, 2018

Thursday, Your Name Is: LIZARD QUEST (Day Five)

Brain cancer is...


...finishing our lizard photo quest.

Upon our arrival, we began an animal census, tracking our sightings of different species and their numbers.  Our walk near the lake and Discovery Center today took us over an estimated 100 for lizards, by far the most plentiful land animal in our census.  Once we realized that fact, we knew needed some photos for you so that you too could appreciate our surfeit of lizards.

Today we learned that it's more difficult to take lizard pics than, say, lake pics, or goose pics.  Above you see the best of our efforts.*  Additionally, we learned that even the best of our lizard pics will likely garner few fans.  There goes that side job!

Other Animals In Our Census

*Lizard quest:  Four frames, five lizards.  Do you see all five?  

Bonus Quest of Our Hearts

Signs along various trails encourage hikers to be on the look out for rarely sighted animals.  One is the porcupine:

Oh, to see a porcupine!  We will continue the porcupine quest in our hearts, with little hope of spotting one in our travels.


Apparently the last porcupine sighting here was a decade ago.  We do believe in you, porcupines!

We hope your quests were happy and successful today too.


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

"Adventure Pass" Wednesday (Day 4)

Brain cancer is...


...adventuring, with a pass.

For years, we have been promising each other to, upon Big Bear arrival, pick up an Adventure Pass to hike some of the lesser travelled trails in the forest.  Today we made good on that promise.

Here's to keeping promises.
What was your adventure today?






Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Tuesday: Your Name is WOOD! (Cabin Adventure '18 Day 3)

Brain cancer is..

...sure to be warm come winter.

Today we had a half cord of wood delivered. (Mountain talk.  Yep.)  The wood needs to be transported from the street down to the stacking area.   Then it needs to be stacked. Hauling and stacking firewood is a great workout.  Check out the thrilling sequence in this set of before, during, and after photos.

Street Dump

Target Zone
First We Fling 'Em.

Then We Stack 'Em.
Done!

Hat at a Rakish Angle in Celebration
We hope your Tuesday involved a little less manual labor.  Unless you like manual labor.  Then we hope you got lots.

Bonus Beauty Content

In case your day needs a little more beauty:

All our best!




Monday, April 23, 2018

"Get Things Done" Day (CA18_02)

Brain cancer is...


...getting things done.

Our walk at the lake today was lovely, as you see above.  Since we walked this trail last, they've done some improvements and extensions we definitely need to explore.

We got so much done today.  Really!  Washing machine repair? Check! New toilet seat?  Check! Huge grocery shop? Check! The list goes on and on.

We ended the by enjoying the sunset with dinner on the deck.


Maybe this is what Jimmy Buffet meant by "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

Nice job making it through Monday, Team D!



Sunday, April 22, 2018

Acclimating (Cabin Adventure 2018 Day 1, also known as CA18_01)

Brain cancer is...

...acclimating.

After a pleasant overnight stay with the Welshons at their villa


we headed up the mountain.

Fawnskin.


Ahhh!  On Monday, November 14, 2016, we broke our cabin-stay record with an 11-day stay.  (Click here for the post, if you like.)

We're going to see if that record can be broken.  We're gearing up for the effort with a day of...acclimating.  Highly recommended.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Go North...to Alaska!

Brain cancer is...

...planning for Alaska.

Today Team Alaska met to plan dining and excursions for this summer's cruise.  Yes!  We are taking an Alaskan cruise in July!  Above you see back row (Geoff, Darrell, and Curt) and front row (Andi, Beth, and Barb) travelers anticipating an awesome adventure.

When we booked this trip, we just couldn't believe that we'd be planning such a wonderful adventure 29 months after Darrell received a "terminal" Glioblastoma Multiforme diagnosis.  And now the cruise is upon us.  Here's to re-envisioning the possible!

(Kim N:  Recognize the map?  Loving it! Let's go north!)








Friday, April 20, 2018

[Another] Great Day

Brain cancer is...

 ...racking up the great days.

We hope you're smiling today too.  Welcome to the weekend!

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Beauty Head

Brain cancer is...

...occupying some prime real estate.

I am always happy for array change days because I miss Darrell's head.  I call it "beauty head," and in the photo, above, you can see why.  Lovely, isn't it?

Medical stuff:  I thought you might also like to see how his head looks when the Optune arrays come off.   You see how the arrays left dents.  And you probably see a red sore spot between the two dents.  We shift the arrays each change to let the skin rest and heal. 

You'll be impressed to know that this Darrell's most fragile scalp area because it's the tumor side, hence the surgery and radiation side.  Beauty head!

Let's play "I spy!"  Can you find the scar?  It's healed so well!  Need a hint?  Why not click here for that crowd pleasing post from 2/15/16:  The staples. 

Happy Thursday, Team D!  



Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Some Surprising Sights Today

Brain cancer is...

...often surprised by the day.

We didn't expect any surprises today, but...ain't that the way?  Here are some sights that surprised us today.

A smiling dog.  This dog smiled the entire time we passed by.

Darrell (unnecessarily) climbing fences
I walked out of the restroom to the above scene.  You see how easy it would have been for Darrell to go around the fence.

Apparently, as he was waiting for me, Darrell had a conversation with himself:
"Hey self!" he said to himself.  "Remember when we were kids?  It was so easy to climb fences!"

It seems that the image in Darrell's head was more like this...

 
...with Darrell near the top, the toes of his shoes fitting easily into the fence holes, his hands free from pain.  (Curt, you were probably scrambling up, right next to him.)

A boat on the lake at Craig Park!  It would be so easy to blame a retired engineer who wouldn't help.  Except that...
...the sun set with a car that needed to be dusted...and got dusted.
 We hope all your surprises were benign today*! 

*Unless you were Melanie, looking for a water main at 7:30 a.m. Not such a benign surprise.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

No Remorse

Brain cancer is...

 ...not sorry.  At all.

Today took us back to the scene of the water event of Saturday, April 18.  It was like an episode of Forensic Files, with so much sad evidence left behind.

Darrell had so little emotion concerning the total piping system failure that he said, "make sure you get the shot from this angle:"


He is really retired, friends.

We hope that your Tuesday sky was as beautiful as ours!

Monday, April 16, 2018

Back on the Clock!

Brain cancer is...

 ...back on the clock.

I have the privilege of continuing to work with the summer STEAM English Language Development Camp partnership CSUF has with a local district.  It's crunch time for curriculum development.

While I sat writing children's books about sand dollars today, Darrell was back on the clock, adding to the effort.  Isn't that a great shot of the aboral view of a sand dollar test?*  Yes, that's Darrell's fancy work.  The black background and lighting?  Perfect.

Christine:  Big D is starting to look for contract re-openers already.  Sigh.  And speaking of you, Christine:  Magic Porch Monday is not a thing.  Porches are not magic.  You are.

Thanks, Mayfields.  Thanks lunch colleagues/friends.  Thanks for the sweet card, Donna. Family and friends are the best.  Successful Monday completion all around, Yes, Team?

*Right here I am applying the mental brakes to stop myself from just going forward full speed with everything that could be shared from this photo.  You're welcome.  But just one thing:  The hole you see is a lunule.  If a sand dollar has any lunules, it has five or six of them. 

Sunday, April 15, 2018

“I’m retired.”

Brain cancer is...

...retired. 

Today’s excitement was the above scene at the park.   (Click here for the thrilling live action version.)

Given his expertise in fluid flow and experience in piping design, Darrell explained the situation to me clearly.

By the time we made it around the lake again, the park rangers were on the scene.



I asked Darrell if he’d like to help them out.  He didn’t even blink:  “I’m retired.”

Amen to that!

Happy Sunday Team D., and may your week treat you gently, regardless of your retirement status.

 

Bonus Content, High Cute Factor