Sabbatical+2013


 * Executive Summary:** Life marches on and marches to the beat of its purpose and nature. Our trajectory in this rhythm is our responsibility but only to a point. Some moments and events are not in our control nor are they in our interest to try to control. For those events one must learn the the practice of surrendering to the moment and being fully in the present. With the continued development of this skill comes a new perspective and gratitude for all life's blessings. The blessings seep into every pore feeding back to the act of fully being. When faced with losing a friend, there is not value in future worry nor past regrets. Healing energy comes from a place of peace, gratitude and love. It is realized when being fully in the now.

My initial plans for sabbatical included a lot of travel. I wanted to make short conventional type trips to PA and LA to visit family but other than that, my travel plans were to be in the saddle of my bike touring Oregon with my much loved schnauzer (Sherman) in tow. But plans and reality sometimes do not agree. In the weeks before the first day of sabbatical, Sherman started to have seizures and labored breathing. The seizures were exceedingly scary for him as well as exhausting. In addition arthritis in his back and knee seemed to get worse during this time. By the time my sabbatical started he had no energy to walk around the block let alone to tour the state in his baby trailer behind my bike for weeks on end.
 * The Best Laid Plans:**

And so it was that I entered my sabbatical with no solid plans for how to use the time and a very sick doggy friend. On the first morning of sabbatical I woke up and did a program schedule for the days ahead. Like all people, I have a "bucket list" of things I wanted to do for fun that just never happened. In addition, I did have a number of very large and deferred projects on the farm that needed to be tackled. In fact there was more work and play to do then my time off would even allow. So I stacked the tasks in order of importance/need and decided to tackle one major project each week and one major fun thing each week. And through all the plans and play and work, I took the time to make sure that Sherman's needs were accommodated for and that he was comfortable and happy.

The first trip was to the beach with my dear friend and colleague. The weather was so perfect that she called her husband and told him to bring the boys.
 * The Trips:**



It really was quite magical as it is rarely such beautiful weather here at the beaches.



Next I was off to the redwood forest with my friend Tasia.

It has always been a dream to ride the Avenue of the Giants. Since Sherman needed 4-6 hours per day of rest, and since he had his own RV to stay in, it worked perfectly to ride this road and return to him in the same day. The next day we hiked the Jedediah Smith trail (some of it). In between, we did all manners of eating, drinking and exploring of new and wonderful places.



I could live forever in these forests.

The next trip was a fly fishing trip with one of the teens I mentor. I have never done fly fishing before and neither has he so it was a bit of a learning curve and some $$$ too. We went to the Metolious and we were told many times how that river was hard to fish. So work hard we did. And we got one! Take that you snooty old fly fishing guys. LOL! The next trip was just one night and was also on the eve of my 50th birthday. A bunch of friends and I packed up our cars and went to WA to a UFO camp to spend the night looking up at the sky and watching Mt Adams. I cannot find any pictures of Mt Adams on my phone nor from that trip really. I swear not drunk. In fact I was a tiny bit tired for the whole trip as there were a lot of people at the place. So that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. I did see a lot of beautiful lights, satellites and shooting stars. Also on the way there was one of the coolest shoo-shoo trains ever!! The next adventure was again with Tasia (she loves my RV too). This trip was too amazing for words. We decided to take these little yellow kayaks and head North to the Olympic Peninsula. We had a blast traveling for 3 or so hours a day to find the perfect place to kayak, then kayaking and then relaxing in the woods in the Olympic National forest by night. Every night we watched the stars pop into the sky and watched the moon rise. The blue moon paid us a visit during this trip in fact. One day was more noteworthy than the others. We decided to put in alongside of about 30 shoulder-to-shoulder salmon fishermen in the Sknomish River next to Anna's bay. We drifted down the current towards the bay and scared up schools of these giant fish. I had never seen such big fish. Even the fishermen remarked how they are bringing in 20lb fish regularly. The fish swam and jump in front of us and we could see them in the crystal clear water below. The water was cold and fresh. Above us were more eagles than I have ever seen in my life in one place. One of the eagles flew directly over my boat looking for an easy fish to steal. With very little to no effort we found ourselves at the mouth of the bay. Here the water tasted salty and we were greeted by several adult leopard seals and their pups. Tasia and I went out into the bay to get closer to them but they swam away, so we sat where we were and watched them play in the incoming tide. When we finally had our fill of watching the seals, we turned around and let the tide push us back up river. It was the best timing ever for a kayak trip!!! One of the seals followed us all the way back. The water now was salty and cold. We did laughed about not working or paddling for a few days until later in the Lewis River we paddled upstream only to be met with the incoming tide on the way back and had to paddle back against that. And of course there was exploring a bunch of new places, towns, and parks. We ate incredibly well on this trip as I had packed my little grill. We ate fresh local meats and fish along with vegetables straight from the farms and farmer markets we found along the way. Summer harvest time is great. The final trip was to the Deschutes for yet another try at fly fishing. This time I went without teenager and spent quality time with another one of my best friends on this planet. Scott Kritzer and I know each other through the classical guitar. He is my teacher. We have known each other for about 8 years and grew quite close over that time. We both love classical music, football, getting rowdy and having a good time. Our children are about the same age. And yet somehow we missed the fact that we both like to fish. Of course he believes that fly fishing is the only thing that counts as fishing and that you have not done fly fishing until you fished the Deschutes. So that is where we decided to go. Now this is one of the most amazing rivers I have ever fished. It was big and powerful and filled with nature. I mean completely filled with nature. Bugs were crawling all over me the whole time I was there. Everywhere I looked there was something to see. There were snakes too. It was incredible. I decided to spend the money to have a 1/2 lesson and Scott joined me. That was so much fun. We both learned a lot. Sadly, we did not catch any fish. I hooked one but could not land it. But I am not complaining. Scott and I had a wonderful time. In the evening we played guitar together. There is this SOR duet that we played and it sounded amazing! On the last night there we decided to go to the local bar to have some happy hour food and drinks. Ironically this geetar player pulls up next to the gas fire pit with us and he and his wife play and sing to us all evening. A couple of short trips to my favorite small town for biking and fishing Vernonia just for kicks is included in this section but I will not bore you with more pictures. . :)

And then there was all the little stuff. A fourth of July party, exploring the things in my neighborhood that are fun. Like our awesome drive in theater, local parks, (with fishing holes), new restaurants and new rides and hikes. I will forever be grateful for this time as I found some amazing local resources that were "under my nose" all this time but I had never taken the time to see them. One of these places is only 11 miles from my house and is one of the very most amazing bass fishing spots I have ever been to. A bonus is it is the perfect water for kayaking. So I bought a pair of kayaks and kayaking and fishing I did. Regularly. I caught an average 4-5 fish every time I put in here and the bass were usually 13 plus inches.
 * Msc.**

When my friend (who just moved up from California) confided to me that he had not caught a fish in 5 years, I took him to this channel. The second time there, he broke his unlucky run! He has caught many more since that day. I also spent several days exploring the fishing in the Wilson River and using the facilities in Tillamook State Park. Another one of the coolest thing I did this sabbatical was to spend time with Leslie (great friends for more than 20 years now) to help her buy a trike. She is affected by Parkinson's and in need of movement. Inspired by my love for biking, she thought to get a trike. At fist she looked at the "old people" type trikes. To her, I guess that made sense given as that is what the folks seemed to be riding at her age. It seemed like a good thing to me too until I tried one. Leslie borrowed one from her neighbor and took it on a few rides. She reported it was hard. So I tried it and sheesh, it was ridiculously heavy and hard to ride. I went to the stores and tried others and they too were terrible. It was then I suggested that she try recumbents. So we went shopping at a few stores in town and she opted for a tadpole. I have always loved the tadpole style bikes and had a blast spending a few days actually test riding with her. At the end of the 2nd day, she decided to buy a Cattrike. And I (not wishing to spend 2k dollars since I have 3 bikes already) found a cheap one on CL that I got fixed up. Now she and I will get to ride together!!! There were multiple (too numerous to mention) day trips and half day trips on the bikes and the ebikes.

And of course on kayaks. (this picture was a day trip we took to Scappoose with some friends)



On the first morning back from our long kayak trip to WA Tasia and I decided to take the ebikes to Gaston's annual car show (the Wapato showdown). There we spent a short while looking at the cars and then went to taste the frozen margaritas at the One Horse Tavern.



I also went to two fairs on my sabbatical (typically I do not have the energy to go to even one) and also to a few horse shows.

And I watched more football already this season than I typically can fit into an entire season any other year. I also watched a record breaking 4 movies!

I brought a piece of music up for and performed it at the monthly guitar society meeting in Portland. In fact I got lots of really good quality practice time.



The time off gave me the ability to tackle a few projects around the farm in between my trips and fun. I got my rental house ready for new tenants and welcomed them to the property.
 * Destruction and Construction: **

I managed to clean out most of the big pole barn (the bottom part anyway)

I then cleaned out a room in that pole barn and turned it into a gym. This took a few days and nights only with one night consisting of margaritas and a little help from Tasia. (we drunk painted but it turned out very well anyway)



And I managed to get a really great start (almost finished in fact) on a major face-lift to my little tiny apartment (the space I now live) under the pole barn. It went from this....



Through all of this....





It isn't finished quite yet so no pictures of the finished project yet.. Suffice it to say that the work done is major and it is looking amazing. If they finish on Friday (like they say they will), I will post pictures then. I am sick to death of construction right now.

At the beginning of my sabbatical, I got a visit from my oldest daughter (from Dallas) Gwen and her boyfriend. We had a wonderful time. Just before she came I had found kayaks on sale. Gwen and I took them out on their maiden voyage. And in the end, my youngest daughter (Casey) came up from LA. We basically hung out as we do and enjoyed the quiet and peace of the farm, some of the nature in the parks and a picnic with good friends. I did not get a chance to travel back East to see my Mother due to Sherman's health but will plan now to do that over Thanksgiving.
 * Family:**






 * The Dog: ** So what about Sherman? Well Sherman had some rough days here and there.



But mostly he had peaceful and happy days. He went everywhere with me and was given plenty of down time during the day.



He even manged a few short bike rides and one 40 mile bike ride.



He is an older dog of course but right now he is looking very good. We are testing him for diabetes to rule out that given the seizures. Otherwise we are enjoying our time together on this earth one minute, one hour, one day and one RV trip at a time. I am learning to appreciate the time I have with him in the moment and a result of that is that he is happier and subsequently calmer and healthier.



We all are given only so much time on this planet and things take up time to do. During my sabbatical I have learned to stress less about getting things done and enjoy the things I am doing more. I feel amazing peace and enlightenment. I also feel renewed commitment to my job and being more present in that work. I am recharged and ready to go back with my new perspective.