The Road Less Traveled... in Joshua Tree

One of my favorite lines of poetry comes from Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.

The final stanza reads:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I like to take roads less traveled by. I've done it locally and not so locally. I've done it recently, and I've done it for years.

Once, while camping in Sequoia National Park, I took my pre-teen kids on a ranger led hike on Morro Rock. It was a pre-scheduled, published opportunity for park visitors to go a bit deeper into their visit to the park. The only ones who showed up for this free opportunity were my family and me.

The park ranger, a certified naturalist, did his duty and informed us. One thing he said that left an impression was this, "The average visitor to Sequoia stays for four hours."

What? As if a drive-through, a stop at the gift store, and a short walk on the paved path to General Sherman constitutes a visit? Sad, but true.

We took short two-hour type of hikes. We went to the ranger led camp fires. My kids earned their junior ranger badges. (We camped in a park cabin with a canvas roof and a wood burning stove for cooking.)

Some would say, "That's hardly 'the road less traveled'!" But I'd disagree.

Once we were more than 1/2 mile from any trail head, we were pretty much alone. It wasn't necessary to go wilderness camping, we just needed to go a bit deeper off the main path. Sometimes we were in a crowd, but it was a small crowd.

In the movie, "Out of Africa," Denys says, "I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life."

Denys took the road less traveled. He practiced non-conformity. One of Denys' critics said, "He likes giving gifts... but not at Christmas." (Go Denys!)

I like to live somewhat creatively. I like roads, but I like back roads, less traveled roads. They seem more interesting and more out-of-the-ordinary.

So, when my wife recently suggested a vacation away from home, I looked a bit off the beaten path. We went "camping" at a condo in Indio. (Indio is not Palm Springs. It's 20 miles east.)

I've done tent camping. I've slept under a bush by a river. I've slept at the bottom of a freeway embankment. Now days, I camp at timeshares. (I find that my wife is more prone to go camping with me, if I stay away from tents.) Adventure doesn't require a tent.

Summer is vacation time for many people. Roads are full. Parks are full. Space is limited, except for... off the beaten path. Summer in the Palm Springs/Indio area is off-season: it's hot. We knew that, but reserved a unit anyway.

The Southwestern US has experienced a population influx since the 1950's. Why? Because of the wide-spread availability of air-conditioning! A/C makes living in the desert very do-able.

I bought my first air-conditioned car in '97! I'm a bit slow, but Wow! Car travel is less sweaty now. Especially when driving into the desert in the middle of summer.

We headed to Indio, which is about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, into the heat (100's). It was great! Our unit was nice, but we were only there at night. By day... we did road trips -- back road trips.

Day One: we visited the eastern end of Joshua Tree National Park. (A park less traveled.) We did a short half mile hike to an oasis. (We saw five people.) We stopped by all the road-side exhibit signs. (Usually, we read them from the air-conditioned car.) We took all the small paved roads off the main road. We hiked the short hike to the vista point at Keyes.

The eastern end of Joshua Tree is less spectacular than the western end. We knew that. That's why we were there: slightly off-center. We saw Octillos, Chollos, and yuccas. After a half day in the eastern end of the park, we drove straight through and out of the western end. We headed "home" to our condo. It was 50 miles or so from the park entrance.

We grocery shopped at Fresh and Easy and dined royally at home, loaded the dishwasher, played some tile rummy, watched some cable TV in our air-conditioned unit, and flopped into our comfy bed. Ahhh... this is camping!

Enjoy the pics!

(Next time... Day Two: Maintained dirt roads in Joshua Tree.)

Vacating my Vacation

Anybody miss me?

I was on vacation for the last four or five days.

"What?" (I can hear a few of you saying.) "You've been on vacation for weeks and weeks. It's almost annoying how long you've been on vacation."



Yes, that's all true. I'm on Summer Vacation from teaching, but last week my wife and I went "away" on vacation. I took a vacation from my vacation.

*gag* (I hear some of you having some trouble here.)

As fun as my stay-at-home vacation has been, my wife suggested that we get away a bit before I went back to school. That was about three weeks ago.

Now my wife isn't one to suggest these things very often, so I jumped on it. I have something called RCI Points, and for a mere 7,500 points and $168, I got us a two-bedroom, fully furnished timeshare in a country club setting in Indio, near Palm Springs, for a week!

Indio in the summer is about the only place still available for trading during the sought after month of August. Why? Because it's hot! 100 degree plus hot. But we decided to go for it, and we're glad we did.



Indio is about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, which is 90 miles east of where I live. So, after less than two hours of driving, we were at our new "home". Although I got the timeshare for a week, I only anticipated staying four nights. (Playing the timeshare/points game is an art form.)

Last year we did a desert road trip in June and the weather was 110 to 115 degrees hot. Ouch. Instead of being 10 degrees hotter than normal like last year, the weather was 5 to 10 degrees below normal, so we had 90's and low 100's. With A/C in the condo and car, it was a breeze. (Joshua Tree is high desert, so it was a cool 88 to 93.)

We used the condo as our "base camp." Some people climb mountains from their base camps, we took day-long road trips. We drove to Joshua Tree National Park two of the days, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (and Salton Sea) another.



A little research uncovered a local Fresh and Easy Market, and we had meals to-go, and meals to have at home. We had a blast. We smiled a lot. We marveled at the scenery, enjoyed the blue skies, and the nice beds. We got back yesterday.

The bags aren't unpacked yet, but I'm back to my other vacation, which includes catching up on reading some blogs. The cats and dog are glad we're home. I'm back to lining up some racquetball. The new plants survived. And I have pictures!

Another awesome aspect of the vacation is how great 85 degree weather at home feels. It's so cool!



So although I vacated from my at-home vacation, I still have a few more weeks before I return to the work-a-day world of gainful employment. And just to ease the envy of all of you who don't get summers off, remember, I don't get paid. Paychecks come my way once a month, ten months out of the year. During July and August my paychecks are absent. (Good thing I know how to budget, save, and spend wisely!)

Hope you all are enjoying the summer. Before you know it, fall will arrive, and then... that long, cold winter that makes you long for... summer!

Some times... things get finished.

Life is a journey. Projects are more often in-process than completed. But sometimes... projects are completed.

The city has almost finished the sewer/road project in front of my house. Today, they put down the first of two layers of asphalt. Tomorrow... they finish.



For Fathers' Day, I bought myself two star jasmine plants. One thing led to another, and now, many weeks later, I have a new fenced-in patio with a star jasmine. I also have a new trellis by my back door with the second star jasmine attached. The plants signify the end of that project. Completed: today!

Several weeks ago I bought an e-book: The Gabriel Method -- The Revolutionary Diet-Free Way to Totally Transform Your Body. I finished it yesterday, including the appendix. The book is done and the transformation has begun: I'm eating much better!



Ahhh... Life is a journey, and sign-posts get passed. Some times things get finished. I savor those moments. I've taken a lesson from the theater industry. When a production closes, they have a cast party. They celebrate the finish. They relax. They party.

Then... because life is a journey... the next adventure begins.



I've never been much of a personal historian. Until five years ago, I rarely took pictures. Sometimes I'd click my ears and blink: "Remember this Don." Now I have a camera and a blog. On-line scrap-booking? Sharing my milestones in photographs and paragraphs?

Yes. Party on!

Tagged: Ten Things About Me... shhhh...

"My friend Saphron over at Tilting at the Universe has given me a tag/ Honest Scrap blogging award. She gave me the award and asked me to pass it along to ten other recipients. Apparently I'm to share 10 honest things about myself, as are those I tag, and then tag/give ten new folks the award. Should you be tagged, which is pretty much a certainty if you follow my blog, then it would be helpful if you followed the directions below so we can share the love with as many fellow bloggers as possible."



Miss H. also tagged me... so this is a two-for-one response. Special thanks to Miss H. because I "stole" the first paragraph of this post from her blog. (Look, I used quotes!)

"Here are the rules:

1. “The Honest Scrap” award is not one to hold all to your self; it must be shared.
2 . The recipient has to tell 10 true things about themselves in their blog that no one else knows.
3. The recipient has to pass along this prestigious award to 10 more bloggers.
4. Those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given with this award.
5. Those 10 bloggers that receive this award should link back to the blog that awarded them."

(I stole the rules from Miss H. as well.)

I, however, am an occasional rule breaker. I rarely play tag. I usually ignore tags, but since Saphron has already reminded me... and Miss H. tagged me too, I'll play along. Mostly. I'll give up some "secrets," but I'm letting my end of the tag-line die here. My readers can play if they want... or not.


I also thought about spewing some falsehoods here, just for the fun of it, but then I re-read the rules... something about "true things."

Each of us has our "stories." Anyone who has known me for any length of time will occasionally witness a story "repeat." So some of what I share here will be known to a select few. (Not all the tidbits are interesting, but they are my tidbits.) Here is my "Honest Scrap:"

1. I have never successfully mastered a single water-ski. (I gave up after several tries.)
2. I once hitch-hiked from Iowa to New York in three days.
3. I once let a student shave my head for charity: St. Baldrick's Day.
4. I once held a junior high record for sit-ups in a minute: 72.
5. I once got my '67 Fiat Coupe airborne.
6. The four year college program I started in '71, I finished in '98. (I took a "break" when I was 20 units short.)
7. Last night I dreamed that I was operating a floor buffing machine. (I last worked one in the '70s.)
8. I still have a silver cap on one tooth (bottom front). It's a temporary cap I got in '67 after I chipped a tooth playing football with friends.
9. I could swim five laps underwater in the family pool with one breath: 36' times 5.
10. I once walked down the stairs inside the Washington Monument: 897 of them.

Ten "interesting" facts that span a 45 year period dredged up from my memory banks for your reading "pleasure." And a tip-of-the-hat to Saphron and Miss H.

Math: God knows inequalities...

I teach math. It is one of the most challenging things that I do, and as a result, I'm always on the look out for math in the real world. I found some recently as I was re-reading the Gospel according to Matthew. Gospel means good news, and it is essentially a mini-biography of Jesus. The bible has four of these mini-biographies/gospels.



I re-read things. I re-read the posts of fellow bloggers. I re-read most of my own posts. I see things on the second, third, or thirty-seventh pass. I'm on about my 60th trip through the Gospel according to Matthew.

This time, I saw inequalities. In math, an inequality is usually stated in terms of greater than or less than. It stands in contrast to things being equal. Two fourths is equal to one half: an equality. Nine tenths is greater than one third: an inequality.

Now it's one thing to compare numbers and quantities: that's math we learn in school. (Or, at least they teach it. Learning it is more hit-or-miss.) But in Matthew, Jesus uses inequalities to do moral and spiritual mathematics.



For example: Jesus talks about being "least" or "greatest" in the kingdom of heaven. He speaks of a righteousness that exceeds (is greater than) the scribes and Pharisees (the religious zealots of the day). Just before Jesus gave the so-called golden rule, he said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, HOW MUCH MORE shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Apparently there are degrees of inequality.

I saw more astounding comparisons/inequalities: "Verity I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." Here, Jesus is doing a cross-cultural, cross-historical moral comparison of two cities. Wow!



Jesus even made cross-species comparisons of worth: "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." Or, "How much then is a man better than a sheep?"

Not only does Jesus compare cultures, cities, and species, he compares people: "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Double wow!

As a math teacher, and as one who studies levels of moral reasoning, I am impressed.

My last post contained a list of life lessons from Regina Brett. At the top of her list is "Life isn't fair, but it's still good." Life isn't always equal: inequalities exist. But life is still good. Life is still good, in part, because God understands and measures the inequalities. The Moral Head of the Universe knows math.

That's why #8 on Regina's list makes sense: It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. You can get angry and argue with God, in fact He invites it: "Come let us reason together..."



Even Jonah, the swallowed one, needed a lesson in moral inequalities. Jonah was upset because his shade producing gourd/vine had died, but Jonah was not concerned over the destruction of a whole city, so God said, "Thou has had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more that sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" God cared about the plant, the people, and the cattle. He also cared about Jonah -- a single man. Wow.

Each culture and time has its own sticky moral dilemmas, and so do each of us. I don't pretend to understand the inequalities, but it gives me great peace knowing that Someone does. It also makes me glad that I've put my "hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the waters." He knows stuff!

He understands the moral issues regarding prejudice, racism, sexism, genocide, abuse, war... and the list goes on. Jesus rebuked the moral experts of his day with these words: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Judgment, mercy, faith... weightier (more than)... arguments about tithing.



In reading the Gospel according to Matthew, I also saw that Jesus' exam questions are real soul searchers: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

A person's soul is of greater worth than... the whole world! Wow. Amazing mathematics. Amazing Moral Mathematician.

Regina Brett is not 90, but she knows stuff!

On July 9th I received a viral e-mail. It was a good one, and I've let it sit in my queue waiting for an appropriate time to share. Before I post stuff, I usually check on its validity. This link provides an update on this urban legend.



The e-mail I got states that Regina Brett is a 90 something year old columnist for the Plain Dealer. This is all true, except for the age. Regina is in her early fifties. She wrote out this list of life's lessons when she was 45.

I thought her list was worth passing along. Here it is...

Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on
Cleveland, Ohio -- The Plain Dealer
Sunday May 28, 2006, 10:13 AM

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:



1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Sports: A strong work ethic

The fifth reason I like sports is that they teach the importance of a strong work ethic.



In order to be successful in sports you have to show up, ready to practice, and ready to play. You need to follow the coach's instructions, even if you don't understand them. You can't quit, even when you might feel like it. If you do these things, your chances of success improve, and so does your team's.

I'm not saying that sports are the only place to develop a strong work ethic, but the days of paper routes, mowing the neighbor's lawn, or even babysitting may be gone. Chores at home help. First "real" jobs help. But sports provide a very motivating place to learn to work hard with your team.



Recently I started exchanging e-mails with a friend I dated in high school. Her grandparents owned a burger place where she worked sometimes. Later, after she married, her husband and her, along with some business partners, opened a small restaurant. In discussing with her what she looked for in an employee, she stated, "I'd be happy if the just showed up for work every day."

This tell me that many employees lack a strong work ethic. My friend would have been happy if they had a work ethic, let alone a strong one. A strong work ethic is valuable in sports and in life.



Many of the habits that a coach is looking for and trying to instill, are the same habits employers are looking for. Show up on time, be ready to contribute, maintain good levels of effort, be willing to learn and improve, get along with others: be a team player.

Although it's possible to play sports and not develop develop these characteristics, you have to work at it. You have to ignore your coaches, your team captains, and most of the stand-out athletes on your team. It can be done. You see it on teams and later on the job: they are the slackers. They didn't learn. They didn't want to.

Just because sports attempt to teach something, doesn't mean everyone will learn it.

But other athletes go beyond a strong work ethic: they excel. They stay after practice. They research and study the game. They watch movies. They ask questions. They don't give up, even when others do. They find a way to perform at optimum levels. They better themselves. They do better than expected. Sports afford them a training ground for developing life skills that will launch them into atmospheres of achievement unknown to many. Sports help them to develop into better people. (Not better than others, but better versions themselves.)



These are just some of the reasons I still play sports. Sports don't just provide benefits to the young, they provide the benefits to the young-at-heart. How young are you?