Companies can be too big.

Simon has a new favorite place.

I have a cell phone plan, an internet plan, and a "cable" tv plan. I originally got cell phone service with Cingular, and that  ATT. I originally got Internet service with Yahoo, and that turned to ATT. I originally got my tv through Dish Network then changed that to Direct TV, then changed to Uverse by ATT. I thought it would be good to "bundle" all three services and I thought I would save money. I cancelled my home phone service because I never used my home phone and didn't use it. I did that six months ago and I have been unhappy about it ever since. I wasn't happy with the remote for the tv, I never got a bill on time and "bundling" the tv and internet service messed up the website I went to to get my cell phone service and I fell behind in making my payments because I never got a bill. The internet service wasn't as good as I had before. I decided to cancel everything except cell phone service with ATT and they did that very nicely. This week I contacted DISH Network to get TV and internet through them. I was very happy with the price and they were going to install it the same day ATT was disconnecting my service. Then, they told me their internet service was with ATT and I cringed.

Overlooking the Snake River at Twin Falls, ID.

They asked me to contact ATT and have them "bundle" my ATT internet with DISH Network. I called ATT at 9am today to see what I could do. It took me an hour for them to figure out what they could offer me and it ended up I would have to send in my modem and they would have to send me another one, of the exact same type, and I would have to pay $100 and they would give me a $100 credit card to compensate me. I told them I wasn't sure that is what I wanted to do, since I would be without internet until I got their modem in the mail, even though I had one in my house now. I told them I would call back. I called back at 1pm and got someone from India that said my information wasn't in their computer. They had me tell them my phone number 6 times and had me spell my name three times. She put me on hold 3 different times and the third time, after more than an hour, I just hung up. I called again around 2:30 and got another girl from India who couldn't find my information at all in the computer, so I just hung up after 15 minutes. I called back at 3pm and got Philip in Pennsylvania. He was able to help me completely in 30 minutes. He got me twice the speed internet for the same price as I am paying now, even though DISH Network said it would be one third the price. He also arranged me to keep the same modem and they would start the service the same day the service I have now cancelled, so I won't be without internet. I asked to be transferred to his supervisor so I could tell them what great service he gave me and he said thank you and told me he had taken up too much of my time so he transferred me to the billing department who wasn't able to help me, again, and asked me to call back. I think when companies get too big you have to keep contacting them until you get the ONE person that can really help you and give you the service they all should. Thanks Philip!!

Sometimes I feel like calling in the Army!!

Active week

Overlooking Donner Lake

Driving across Nevada to Idaho.

On Thursday we started off from the Bay Area to drive to Idaho. We spent the first night in Lake Tahoe and then the next day we drove to Idaho. On Friday we stayed the night in Idaho Falls so I could run in the Extreme 5K in Rexburg, Idaho. Did you know they had a BYU-Idaho in Rexburg Idaho? After the race Sarah, who was driving with me, and I met up with my mom and sister, Sue, in Heise Hot Springs in Ririe, Idaho.

Snake River near Heise.

Extreme 5K is not all running.

 The Hot Springs was on the Snake River and we killed some time getting pizza and exploring the area. I mainly went to make sure my mom was set up for the month she would be there, but it was also a great time to do some exploring with my daughter. After my mom and Sue got there we got settled into the house and then went to the hot springs. I wanted to do as many different things as we could in the week.

View out the front door of the house.

 We went to the pool that had a 35 foot slide.

The pool by the hot springs had a 35' slide

Sarah did some sunbathing, in a swimsuit that I didn't like my little girl wearing, she is no longer a little girl! Then I learned about geocaching from Sue and we did a lot of that. I learned what stinging nettles are. We then went ziplining. I wasn't sure if I would like sliding down a long wire over valleys, but I figured if my mom would do it than I would. The four of us joined a group of 7 and all 11 of us took 2 hours sliding down 7 different wires!

Mom sliding down the zip line.

We stopped for pictures!

It was a lot of fun and I would suggest everyone try it at least once. I took a lot of pictures and even took a couple of movies while I was zipping down the lines. Sarah went a little crazy and so did my mom. I am proud of both of them. So, we did the hot springs, zip lining, and geocaching. Next we decided to try the golf course.

Sarah missing the ball at the tee.

I have only golfed three times in my life, last time was over 30 years ago. Teaching Sarah to golf was really the blind leading the blind.

First time golfing in 30 years.

Sarah has decided she never wants to golf again, I hope she changes her mind and tries again with some proper instruction. The next day I wanted to visit one of those parks you drive through and they have live animals walking around. They had many bears and buffalo and even a moose and a white elk. It was fun to see all the animals.

The elk just laying around.

Bear cubs playing around.

They had grizzlies and black bears and the black bears had cubs. The cubs were cute and playing around. I got LOTS of pictures and that was fun for me. I was excited for Sarah because they had a wide variety of animals. They had a petting zoo that had the normal stinky animals and that was fun to touch and play with all of them.

Sarah and I fishing and bonding.

I caught the first fish.

The next day we went fishing. We found a fishing hole that didn't need a license and so Sarah and I did some fishing. I caught one and so did she and then we called it a day because it was so hot. We had a great week and drove home on Friday. We drove back in one day, left at 7:30 and got home at 8:00. It was a great week that will be good memories.

Geocaching

My second find!

My first find!

I just got back from Idaho where I was on a vacation with my daughter, Sarah, sister, and mother. My sister, Sue, introduced me to geocaching which is an international phenomenon like adult "hide-n-seek". If you go to the website www.geocaching.com you will find the coordinates where thousands of small items are hidden around the world, literally in many countries in almost every continent. There are stories of people finding "treasures" in Africa and even a guy hiding one in North Korea.

Can you see it hidden in the tree?

I didn't think much of it and originally did it to spend time with my sister and my daughter. Somehow I don't think Sarah will do this much more, but Sue gets really excited about it. When I got home from Idaho I found that there was a "treasure" hidden 50 feet from my home. I went looking and I found the place where it was supposed to be located.

This was where the coordinates let me.

There is one of those tall telephone towers that is surrounded by a fence near me. I looked and jumped the fence and realized it wouldn't be in an illegal place so I looked outside the fence. The website had a clue and it was, silver. I looked for things silver other than the fence so I saw a light pole and in the bottom was a silver door, so I unscrewed the one screw.

Is it behind this door?

Since this was my third time looking in the location I was really hoping it would be here, but it wasn't. I thought about what Sue had told me many times. She told me that it would be a place where no one would find it unless they were looking.

It wasn't there.

I noticed that most of the poles in the fence had tops on them. I tried two of them and they were on securely. I stepped back and took several pictures to send to Sue to see if she had any idea. Before I sent the pictures I looked around more. I noticed there was on cap on top of the poles I didn't try so I walked over and tried it.

Is it under here?

This cap came off and I was happy. I found it! But, then I remembered what I had read on the website that the last few people that had found this "treasure" had found the magnet it was supposed to be attached to, but nothing was there. Usually there is something so you can sign your name, then you go on the website and announce that you found the item. The thing attached to the magnet wasn't there. So I was sad I couldn't put my mark on the item! my mark is grtsct45.

I found it, but there wasn't anything there.

I will go back tonight, when no one is watching attach something to the top so people can be happy to find something again! I guess this means I am truly a nerd, but it is fun and I will keep doing this!

So, I fixed it!

Extreme 5K in Idaho

Finished with EXTREME 5K

On Saturday I was in Idaho and since I needed to do one more 5K in July I had to find a race. I got into the area on Friday night. The race was Saturday morning at 9am in Rexburg, Idaho. I was surprised when I got into town, at 9pm, that there were no hotel rooms in the whole city. So I had to go to the next city with a hotel and drive to Idaho Falls which was 30 miles away. Sarah and I stayed the night in a hotel and then got to the race by 7:45 Saturday morning. I got signed in and I got my shirt and number.The shirt was a great color and a nice design.

Before I started!

I have never run an extreme 5K and it looked pretty fun. The website: http://www.hurdleforhope.org/ had video that showed what the race really was. We are not talking about a regular race, this one has obstacles that you have to climb over and water that you have to run through and fire to jump over and I even got to run on a horse track! This is an extreme 5K, it is about finishing it and doing the distance. I started running through tires and then down a road. Then I got to the first water obstacle, I had to jump into knee deep water, that was stinky and dirty and muddy,and when I got out of the water there were many rocks in my shoes and the water weighed down my shoes. As I started to run I couldn't run much because my shoes were full of rocks.

Crawling over the hurdles.

This race had a 3K and a 5K track. I was doing the 5K, because that is my goal for the year. When I came to the point where I had to go around again for the 5K I almost decided to stop at 3K. I turned the corner and when the 5K route instead. I went through all the obstacles again. I went into the mud, into the chest deep water, over the hay bales that were stacked 15 feet high, jumped over the fire, over the fences I had to climb over, through the knee deep mud pit. I did everything and I was walking most of the second lap. There were so many stones in my shoes it felt like I was walking on a rocky road in bare feet. It took me one hour to finish 5K. The very end had one of those slippery slide things I did then ran over the finish line. I was exhausted and my body hurt from climbing and jumping and crawling. I don't know if I will do it again, but I am glad I tried this once.

Slippery slide at the end of the race.

Waiting to start the race!

Hard to run with rocks in my shoes!

Driving through Nevada

On I80 in Nevada

On Friday I had Sarah drive for almost 10 hours. She has her driving permit and needs to get time behind the wheel so I had her drive from California to Eastern Idaho. We were driving with my mom and sister and were planning on driving about 6 hours, but we got talking and she reminded me that I have been looking forward to running a 5K in Idaho for a long time and since it was a only few more hour drive I should go ahead and do it. So, I signed up for the race and we drove all the way.

Sarah drove most the way.

I was surprised at all the different terrain we drove through. I knew there were deserts, but we also drove past a huge dried lake bed and we drove past some beautiful scenery. We even drove through rain which we didn't expect. The average speed limit on the roads we drove through was 75, so Sarah drove 80 most the way. Sarah seemed comfortable and she drove very confidently. I took dozens of pictures all the way and it was fun to wave at the other drivers as we passed.

I like taking pictures of rock formations.

We drove into Idaho making good time and then we were fascinated by all the hay that was growing. We expected a lot of potato farms and not much of other crops. It was interesting to see that farming in Idaho was done differently than in California. Irrigation in California is done laying pipes and moving them. In Idaho irrigation is a large pipe that moves in a half circle over the crop and water spraying down from it.

Irrigation in Idaho.

We finally got to Rexburg, Idaho where the race was the next day and there were no hotels that had rooms. We were surprised since there was no special event happening in the little town that weekend except the race. We were told later that it is one of the last places that has hotel rooms before an hour drive to Yellowstone National Park. We went back to Idaho Falls, about 30 miles south, and found a room there. I participated in the 5K the next day. It was an Extreme 5K that had mud and obstacles and you had to run through water. I will talk about that race later.

I like the different colored rock

I thought this was a cool picture

Variety of landscape.

Adventure Seekers

Me at Donner Lake

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting old. I am content at sitting at home, or not going someplace new. I think that is when you get old. When I think of someone that has spent their whole life in one place I think they are old, even if they are in their 20s. I have done that too much because it is easy and not risky. Today I'm on the first day of my trip to Idaho. I have been to Idaho once, for a couple of hours when I flew into the airport then picked up a car and then drove it back home through Washington. On this trip I want to do things I have never done, or haven't done for a long time. I want to go fishing, and teach Sarah how to fish. I want to go on a zipline, and try not to scream too loud. I want to visit strange rock formations. I want to run a 5K through streams and mud.

Driving to Lake Tahoe, NV

What I don't want to do is sit by the pool reading a book all day. I can do that at home! I think we all need adventures. My sister, Sue, introduced me to geocaching this evening and maybe I will start doing that now. I don't want to get crazy doing it all the time, but I imagine that could happen. When I want adventure it doesn't have to be dangerous, just out of my house.

Windmill that was put up in 1925

I took 84 pictures today, I wonder if any of them are any good. I don't really think so, but I want to put at least 5 on here every day to see what anyone else thinks of them.

Peach tree

Out the window of the car

out my hotel window~!

Changing my Blog

Windmill in Solvang, CA

I struggle often on what to write every day. When I started writing my blog two years ago with the idea of writing something every day. I was successful doing that originally, but these days it is more like 3 - 5 times a week. I try to include pictures that I have taken, even if they don't have anything to do with what I am writing about. No one likes to read something that doesn't have pictures. I take LOTS of pictures during my work because I travel all over northern California. I include one or two pictures of my travels in these blogs. I don't usually have pictures of people unless it is my family. I once included a picture of a woman and she got really upset at me for putting her picture on my blog that I took it off and she hasn't talked to me since. I think I will try to change my plans for my blog now to be a picture blog.

Sunset at Lake Tahoe, NV

I am starting a trip tomorrow through Lake Tahoe and then to Idaho and do some fishing and whatever else they do in Idaho. I will take many many pictures each day and put the ones I like the best on here and then let the readers judge which one they like the best. Right now I am not sure which is the best, but I want others to let me know which they think is the best. I haven't figured this whole thing out yet, and am not sure how to maximize the number of pictures on here. Let's see if it works if I do my blog this way, and see if I can keep up my daily input to my blog.

Boat in Monterey, CA

Substituting

View from UC Berkeley

On Saturday night I was asked to teach on Sunday morning for another teacher in Berkeley. I had to substitute teach for the second day of a six day course. I didn't know if I was going to be paid, and that isn't the motivation for me teaching the class. I just enjoy teaching! I know I teach differently than other people that teach the class. I was wondering what I was supposed to do, teach my way or teach the way the other teacher does. I always tell my students they can't teach trying to mimic other teachers so I decided to take my own advice and teach my way. I spend the first 2 hours doing the same thing I do on the first day when I teach. There were 14 students in the class. 12 were on time and we played a couple of games and I introduced myself and my background.

View outside my classroom window!

When I teach I need to convince my students I am the best teacher so they know they will get the best education possible. The two other students came in about 2 hours late, a girl and a guy (I guess boyfriend and girlfriend). When they came in we were reviewing all the students' names. I welcomed them and then went back to the class. We got around to these last two and the girl said she wanted to say the names backwards. I thought she wanted to go in reverse order than we were doing before. In fact she started saying the names backwards, changing Greg to Gerg. What that would do it UNdo everything I had been trying to do and not reinforce the names to all the other students. I didn't allow her to continue, and when she refused to stop I turned my back to her and started teaching my class. We started talking about teaching ESL and everything I said this girl would argue with me.

The best shoes anyone has ever worn in my class

She would often tell me I was wrong, or ask how I had the right to make generalizations. She would go off on tangents and talk for about 5 minutes. I could see the other students get upset that she was dominating the class. I then had the students read something in small groups and we would discuss it in larger groups. I had the late girl and guy working together with a third student. They had been in the class about two hours and then the girl got upset that I stopped her from talking again and she got up, picked up her books, and the guy followed her. They walked out without saying anything. The other students clapped after they left. They were so happy she left. I was sad that I had done something wrong. Hopefully they will be back next weekend and I won't get in trouble. It is times like that when I realize I shouldn't volunteer for anything.