Our house was broken into shortly after we moved in. It was the week of Christmas and we were in Michigan with family. How wonderful. We had talked about getting a dog. We thought we should get a guard dog.
We saw Ana on Petfinder from Hope for Paws. She was rescued from a kill shelter down south. She was listed as an Anatolian shepherd dog. That’s a formidable guard dog that can be as much as 150 lb. She looked like a mix between a German shepherd dog and a corgi. She had a cute lazy ear that she outgrew.
She didn’t get much bigger, which turned out to be perfect for us. She definitely wasn’t an Anatolian shepherd. We were crossing the street one time when she was still young. A little boy said to his mom, look at the big fox. So we often called Ana “the little fox”. We did DNA testing much later and determined that she was Alaskan malamute, American pit bull terrier, Siberian husky, and “supermutt”. We named her Ana for Anatolian.
Ana crossed the rainbow bridge Wednesday 20 May, 2026. She was almost 16 years old. We had to use a Help ‘Em Up harness to help her walk. Her arthritis was pretty bad. We discovered that she had Cushing’s disease later than we would have liked. It was under control with medication. She had signs of dementia.
We loved camping and kayaking with her. However, on the last camping trip, we had to leave her in the camper. No way she could sit in the kayak anymore with her arthritis. We bought a bike trailer for her but didn’t get around to trying it before her arthritis got too bad.
We hope she had joyful life with us. We know we will miss her dearly. I keep thinking about Home by Simply Red.
What’s worth nothing else but love Take a walk down any street now Every one of us in our own little world Looking for a heart with whom to beat now…
‘Cause I long for a feeling of home Real life, depicted in song A loving memory After long, home is a place where I yearn to belong
Me with autographed Red Wings, Hockey Fights Cancer sweater and stick.
Who doesn’t know someone affected by cancer? On November 27, 2021, the Detroit Red Wings used special Hockey Fights Cancer sweaters and sticks during warmups. The autographed sweaters and sticks were then auctioned off with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. Not only have I had family members die from cancer, but I’m also a cancer researcher. So, the auction combined two things I love, the Red Wings and cancer research.
Rookies, Lucas Raymond and Mo Seider sweaters climbed past the opening bids quickly. Using player stats, I bid on the players sweaters with the highest points and still close to the opening bid. I made a note on my calendar to check again, on December 4. I had something like 9 losing bids. I ended up winning the signed sweater and stick from Sam Gagner 89, can’t go wrong with a first-round pick. I also bought an unsigned baseball cap with the same Hockey Fights Cancer theme.
I got an email invoice and noticed that part of my address was missing. So, I logged into the system and fixed my address. On Saturday, two days later, the signed stick arrives, wrapped in a white plastic bag with Red Wings written all over it. The sweater and hat are supposed to arrive the next Monday. I wasn’t feeling great after my booster shot, so I decide to work from home.
Checking the FedEx tracking periodically throughout the day and my package was supposed to be delivery by 8 PM. If the FedEx tracking can be believed, the package went to Toledo first. That’s not shocking as you can understand a large FedEx center across the border. The next step was Gaylord, MI which doesn’t make any sense. It’s a small town, far north, definitely not in the direction of Chicago. Eventually the tracking system said delay, and likely not due to the tornados that hit Illinois and Kentucky. All things considered; I’m not upset about the 2nd day delivery failing but I’m naturally disappointed.
FedEx Tracking my package
So I decide to work from home again. Tracking now says the package is in Portage, MI. I could have had any number of family and friends pick up my package in Portage. It’s Tuesday about 10 AM when I see a FedEx van from my home office window. The driver was returning from a couple houses down. I figured, I’m not the only one in my neighborhood that is getting deliveries from FedEx, so I don’t run out and ask where is my package.
Around noon, FedEx tracking says package was delivered, when it clearly was not. I wondered did FedEx leave my package at the apartment building a few houses down, in the direction that I saw the FedEx driver. So I go outside and I can see a package that looks like it could be mine, but they have a locked courtyard.
I email the charity that ran the auction to let them know that maybe FedEx left my package at the wrong house, just in case they can do anything. I mention to Leah, at the charity, that I’m not just a Red Wings fan but I’m also a cancer researcher. She says she loves the Hockey Fights Cancer event because she hears so many stories about how cancer has affected so many people.
I’m going in and out of the house to see if I can catch someone leaving the apartment and hopefully get my package. As I leave my house, I see a young woman. I assume she’s a student and lives in the apartment building. I ask if she does and if she could let me check if FedEx tossed my package over their fence. She agrees, gratefully. The package that looked so promising was from China. No dice. I look around for other FedEx packages without any luck.
Meanwhile, I’m expecting a box of treats from Amazon for Ana. Amazon leaves a package and it’s suspiciously small. I look and sure enough the address is wrong. So I trot down the street to catch the Amazon truck. I give the package to the driver and ask if she has a package for my address. She says no but takes the wrong package to redeliver. When she gets to the right address, the owner is there waiting with Ana’s package. The Amazon driver delivers Ana’s treat but there’s still no sign of my sweater and hat.
I noticed that there are a few packages across the street behind a locked gate. I ask the nice lady at the charity if the package is wrapped with the same white plastic with Red Wings written all over it. Alas, she says no, it’s in a plain white polymer bag.
My mail carrier arrives after I put the Amazon package inside. I ask if she by chance has a key to the locked gate across the street. She says yes and asks if the Amazon driver made a mistake. She must have seen me talking to the Amazon driver. I said, “no, I think FedEx left my package there”. So she goes across the street. First package, no. Second package, no. She picks up the third package and heads across the street. I got my signed sweater and certificate of authenticity. The hat is nice too.
Autographed Bauer hockey stick
Hat and sweater
I handwashed the sweater and was ready to wear it while watching a game, streaming of course. I decided I’m not going to a game at Little Caesars Arena this season. I have no idea what happened to our tickets for the game last year. Then the NHL postponed games until after Christmas due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
On this year’s trip to Idaho, my gear made it to Boise and back just fine. I use an army surplus bag to protect my Osprey Atmos AG 65 backpack from snags, etc. I decided to cinch up the empty space above the backpack with some rope. So it really does look like a body is in the bag. So we refer to the army bag as the body-bag.
This year’s travel related event was a passenger on the inbound flight fainting or something like that. It was on the way to my connection in Phoenix. Before we could deplane, the captain came on the PA to say we all had to sit and let the paramedics get the ill passenger off of the plane first. I looked at my watch and I had about 20 minutes to get to my connection, but I didn’t know which gate I was arriving at or where the connecting gate was. Fortunately after I finally got off the plane, my connecting flight was at the gate across from where I deplaned.
We were thinking of going to Boulder Chain of lakes this year but the snowpack was still too much in late June. So we changed plans to go to Bear Valley and Fir Creek. We arrived at Fir Creek campground and noticed signs that the campground was closed. We assumed it might be related to salmon management. We did notice that most of the camping spots were taken but figured it was mostly forest management folks and a few jerks that ignored the signs. Turned out that the campground was closed until the end of May and the forest service didn’t take the signs down. We moved on to Bear Valley creek campground which was less crowded and better anyway. We managed to miss our turn to Bear Valley. We stopped to look at the map and it was supposed to be 3 miles ahead. We passed a couple walking their dogs and thought it’s been a long 3 miles but we must be close. We realized it was way more than 3 miles and turned around. It seems that where we stopped to look at the map was exactly the fork in the road that we should have turned at.
All hail the tarps! Is that all you got?
Even though we were at a lower elevation than Castle Lake and the Boulder Chain of lakes, we had hail the first evening. That’s better than rain. We were able to keep our fire going. We put up a couple of tarps to try to shield against the wind and hail. The hail kept starting and stopping so Adrian and Jared did their best impression of Lt. Dan, “is that all you got” (from Forrest Gump). It was about 32 °F the first night and fortunately had stopped hailing. My sleeping bag (REI Flash bag) is rated for 29 °F and I have a Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor Liner that’s supposed to add up to 14°F to the sleeping bag (doubtful in reality). My sleeping bag is down on top and synthetic on the bottom to save weight. It’s 1 lb 12 oz plus 8 oz from the liner. I had wool socks, long underwear (top and bottoms), and a knit hat. I was warm enough except my feet got a little cold by morning. We had coffee/tea in Jerry’s camper in the morning. The heater was nice. I also tried out my new Klymit Inertia X-frame recon sleeping pad. The gaps are supposed to allow your sleeping bag to fill the gaps to trap air, and therefore warmth. I put it between my liner and sleeping bag and it seemed to be OK. I also had my old REI Trekker 1.75 self-inflating sleeping pad. Combining them is quite comfortable without too much weight. I also have a Sea to Summit pillow.
Critters Around 1:30 AM the first night I heard the sound of a plastic bag. Jerry left his bag of peanuts (in the shell) out. The bag was only slightly open. So a mule deer was tossing the bag to get them to spill out. So I kept hearing the bag drop. I got out in my long underwear to tell her to go away. Then I put the peanuts in the truck. As usual, the deer came back every night. There was a really young buck, a doe and maybe her fawn. I wasn’t sure if the little deer was her offspring or just small. We saw a lot of birds in the evenings and I practiced a lot with my telephoto lens. I did OK photographing a woodpecker but not so good with the turkey vulture. The birds were bloody loud every morning starting around 5:30. There was a giant ant hill on our campsite and I discovered more like it at other campsites. There were ants everywhere. On the last day, we probably took 20 photos of a little chipmunk that found some granola Adrian spilled.
Oh deer, not again.
Other new equipment I mentioned the Klymit Inertia x-frame recon already. I bought a Garmin Tempe temperature sensor for my Fenix 5 watch. The temperature readings on the watch don’t make sense to me. It’s not quite body temp but it’s clearly not ambient temperature either. The Tempe takes a while to connect to the watch, using ANT+ wireless technology. I hung the Tempe sensor outside my tent to get a few readings in the middle of the night. However, I don’t think I waited long enough for it to connect to my watch for our hikes. Sadly the Garmin software doesn’t tell you if the temperature reading is from the watch or the Tempe sensor but I likely didn’t record from the Tempe.
I tried out my new Goal Zero Nomad 14 Plus solar panel and Venture 30 battery. I didn’t really need them for this trip but it’s always good to try out new gear in a situation where you don’t really need them. I was able to daisy-chain my solar panels with Dan’s but it wasn’t clear if they were really boosting output. Anyway, the Venture 30 battery was enough to charge a couple of phones plus my Garmin watch. I don’t think I needed to charge my Sony camera. Dan and Jerry were trying out their ham radio gear for Field Day.
Getting charged up.
I like my REI Flash 18 daypack because it’s lightweight and packable. However, it’s on the small side and not comfortable if you load it up even with just jackets and clothing. I bought an Osprey hikelite 26 to use as a daypack when car camping. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit me well. It cuts into my shoulders a bit. It’s one size fits some, so I think my wife is claiming it.
Adventures We hiked to the “secret” hot spring on the last day camping. We saw some people on the trail when we were hiking in and they were hiking out. When we got to the hot spring, one section had a heavy sulfur smell so we went down to the larger pool. We came across a group that had just finished and were on their way out. When we were done, we encountered a group just arriving. So we were glad to have the hot spring to ourselves, plus the garter snake we found but I’m not sure it’s really secret or hidden.
We found a wigwam across the creek and decided we should move it as a team building exercise. It wouldn’t fit on the truck so we carried it for a decent workout. We also found what appeared to be an abandoned farm while we were driving around. I still think it’s a CIA safehouse. The Elk Creek national forest guard station was empty but not abandoned. I saw a woodchuck near what appeared to be some kind of bunker but I couldn’t get a photo of him. I also saw some elk when we were driving out but I wasn’t ready with the camera plus we were in the truck.
I treated some of my pants and shirts with Sawyer Permethrin bug spray. It was hard to judge its effectiveness because it was a bit cold and there weren’t too many bugs. Overall the weather was good so I’m not complaining. There were no fires nearby so the air was fresh. The water from the creek seemed to have a bit of a pine aftertaste. At first we thought it might be my filter but Dan’s filter had the same slight aftertaste. As a bonus, Jerry made petite filet mignon, baked potatoes, tomato slices, asparagus, and grilled Anaheim pepper for dinner. It was outstanding and way better than dehydrated camping food, which is not to say that camping food is bad. Some of the camping food packs are actually pretty good.
Since Google Plus is shutting down, I’ve decided that I need a site that I can control. I thought about Medium but decided that it could change in a direction that I don’t like. I’m mostly on Twitter but the character limit is antiquated and dumb. The vibe there is nothing like Google Plus.
I was on Google Plus during the invite only stage in 2011. It soon became my social media home. I’ve met so many wonderful people there. I still can’t believe Google is closing what was once the best social media platform. I’ll write more later but this is just a note to let other Google Plus refugees know that this is where I’ll drop my longform musings.
