Wild

Monday: (01/05) I was off fairly early with Lou. She went grocery shopping, I was off to San Jose. I stopped at Jack In The Box for a Loaded Breakfast Sandwich. I then stopped in at Payless Rockery to fill a bunch of my five gallon buckets with more base rock. The apartment was COLD! I fired up the heater and settled in. I had a webinar to attend at 1000. After that I was off to Leale's RV Repair to schedule a checkup for the motorhome. I then spent a couple of hours trying to collect materials for the drain project. It always seems harder to get what is needed than it should be. I dropped the material and rock off. I had a Super Taqueria burrito for lunch then headed off to try and find a couple of things that the Home Depot I was at didn't have. Having collected everything I thought I needed I stopped off at the theater in Santana Row shopping center and watched the movie "Wild" about Cheryl Strayed's PCT hike. I had signed up to see it with my hiking group tomorrow at 1100 but having lost much of today to non productive material gathering, I thought I'd save the daylight for work and see the movie tonight. After the movie, I stopped by the New York Cheese Cake Factory restaurant for a slice to take home. A nice day though rather cool.

OK, OK, I liked it! While the portions of the trail we each hiked were not the same anyplace except crossing the Bridge Of The Gods in Oregon, I think, it is a good representation of life on the trail. I think I had an advantage by having better equipment and having completed a practice backpacking hike, my first, a couple of weeks before I started on the trail at the Mexican border. I can really sympathize with her heavy pack the first time she tried to wear it. I almost fell over backwards myself. I also found that I was carrying things I didn't need and shed some after the first 200 miles and more along the way on the later 500 miles. My pack load was almost respectable when I finished. Now I just hope I retain that wisdom and keep the pack light. Luxuries are for the "zero" days and don't need to be carried. I also thought the loss of a toenail and blisters was typical. I lost one and gained a blister a day during that first 200 miles. While I did try to have bigger shoes, I didn't go big enough and changed from 1 size to 2 sizes larger for my later 500 miles. That and a change to Injinji "toe" socks under medium weight hiking socks cured that problem and I had no problems with my feet on the later 500 miles. My ankles and knees did take turns complaining when I restarted the hike. Her pack seemed to wear off her skin, mine never presented a problem even though it was way over weight at 65 pounds. And finally, I never felt alone on the trail because I rarely was. It was a rare day when I saw only a handful of people. More often you were almost bumping shoulders. All in all, things have certainly improved with GPS and smartphones now, no maps nor compass needed.

This was the first movie I've been to see at a theater for a couple of years and it's nice to see things have changed. I worked as a projectionist for 10 years and it looks like if I'd stayed in that profession, I'd be out of a job now. The theater was just a big (huge) TV screen, not optical projection. It was probably a better show, even with a slight loss of resolution, because it was in focus all the time and there were no splices or jumps nor changeover marks on the film. However, I still really miss seeing the curtains open as the movie starts (what curtains, you say?)