The last week

I cannot believe our walk starts one week from today. How can I feel so excited yet so calm...so at peace yet so nervous..so prepared ...but not...ahhhhhh the dichotomy of it all....such is life.
Today Andrea surprised me with a prehike Thai massage. If you've never done this, please do your achy, tight, old body a favor and schedule a session.
Just think of it as passive yoga/stretching with  gentle soft tissue manipulation...
I'm sure I'll need another at midhike and after...
Several of my colleagues have expressed an interest in a "show-and-tell" lunch. Tomorrow I will haul my pack to work, unpack, explain item by item, and repack...all the while (hopefully) fielding interesting questions, facilitating interest and inspiration.
In an attempt to eat more veggies on the trail, I made veggie chips this week . They turned out great! Here's a link to the recipe I used:

http://221vision.com/2011/06/08/whats-for-snack-time-wednesday-homemade-veggie-chips-made-with-a-dehydrator/

Try it. I used 2 cups of fresh kale greens as the veggie. The jalapeno added a nice kick.
I'm sure I'll need a kick on the trail!

Food

Today I decided to see if I could fit 7 days of food in my pack (without removing anything else...I do need all that stuff)
7 days of food weighed exactly 10 pounds. Was that enough food? Too much food? It's very interesting to have 7 days worth of food laid out in front of you. It really doesn't look like much...too bad I didn't think to take pictures...
  Have you ever thought about how much you eat in 7 days? Try it.    Really. Could you fit it in a stuff sack? In all fairness, my stuff is dehydrated....let me know how much a weeks worth of hydrated food weighs ....my menu isn't really spectacular (except for dinner): homemade instant oatmeal breakfast (customized flavors, of course) or homemade granola with blueberries and powdered milk...;
Lunch is a toss up of jerky, cheese, other "snacks" (which double as morning and afternoon "snacks"): goo bars (no bake peanut butter bars), granola, fruit leather,GORP variations, candy bars.
Throw in a few gatorade powders, some tea bags for after dinner, coffee for breakfast, protein powder for dessert and you've got it! My wonderful dinners are the highlight....I've been dehydrating my favorite meals for 5 months....yummy.   Plus there will be good spots to rest and eat along the way.I plan to eat one meal in town per week for some fresh, raw fruit and salad...
Holy crap I'm going on a really long walk very soon...aaaahhhhh..keep in touch!
One days worth and 7 days worth: (yes that is 2 yard sticks at a 90° angle for reference...I watch CSI  too!)

Final countdown

There are lots of "lasts" happening....last day working with one of my oldest and favorite colleagues was this past Thursday..
This upcoming week at work is my last..(at least with this group of morons that have tolerated my corny jokes all these years)  : )
-each patient interaction will likely be my last with that person.

As I continue to tie up loose ends I'm racking my brain "what else needs doing? I'm trying to make poor Andrea's upcoming tasks a little easier:
-organizing the computer desktop icons into functional groups (financial, trail schedules and information, etc)
-creating separate piles in the basement : clothing and supplies I will need later as the seasons change and/or stuff just wears out (or is too stinky to tolerate any longer.)

I opened a separate checking account for 2 reasons.
What's there is what I have....forced budget : )
If some theiving asshole takes my card he only has access to the one account...not our joint account or our credit card account....(you know there will be some real tacky folks along the way and I'd like to be prepared...too bad I don't have nunchakus skills)...

This morning I worked on finalizing my "bounce box" (I'll keep sending this ahead to myself). It contains refills of glucosamine (for my aging knees), one- a-day vitamins (for the rest of my aging body), ibuprofen (for what the previous two don't take care of), Benadryl (for when I'm to achy to sleep OR  Zag puts poison ivy on my toilet paper). Also has refills of hand sanitizer, goldbond powder, tampons (ugh...that'll be an entirely different discussion), tape and blister dressings (Johnson & Johnson makes an awesome hydrocolloid dressing that you can leave on for several days, allowing the wound bed to heal without being disturbed and greatly reducing the chance of infection), repair kit for tent, etc.,extra floss, toothpaste and toothbrush,....an extra trash compacter bag, An extra piece of heavy duty foil for my stove....
tape and labels and address list of all destinations.....

Gonna go out now and pick up a few more little items...

Pooh

Now that the departure date  draws VERY near, I find myself weighing the options a bit more carefully when it comes to my free time. On one hand, I feel I should  be "training" somehow; devoting my precious free time to all things backpacking....on the other  hand I realize each morsel of free time IS precious and I should devote it to what/who is precious to me...namely my family and friends.
so I've found myself being quite the electric blanket slob.   nothing feels better than basking in the warmth of the blanket in the bed, especially when it's bone chilling cold and blustery outside.
I'll have plenty of opportunities to be cold on  the AT....
I'm sure Winnie the pooh would have something to say about this...I .think he'd agree...under the warm blanket is a great place to be on a blustery day

trickles

Months ago, as I contemplated the possibility of having to resign, I began to think a bit about my worth as an employee, as a colleague, and as a therapist providing what I consider a skilled service.
I thought about the basic human desire to feel needed. Would I be missed? Would my absence be any sort of detriment...what do I bring to the table, so to speak..
I wondered what sort of fallout there would be.  How would
my relationship with people change? What coping mechanisms would be utilized by all my peeps..what was I about to witness?

Well, the results are trickling in.
Each passing day seems to break down the relationship protocol that exists. The heartfelt comments and random"what if" questions are emerging more frequently. I'm pleasantly surprised so far at the positive comments I've received and by the the pieces of me that will be missed. Of course, the work environment, devoid of my delightful personality, will hardly be tolerated...hopefully my clinical worth will be realized as well.

Zag's blog

Http://Zagwalks.blogspot.com

Click on the mail drops link on the righthand side.

This is a link to some great info posted by my hiking partner, zag, who is way more tech savvy than me (that is the understatement of the year, so far).
Her  blog site is impressive: full of great info and stylish too.
Please check it out because there's no way you'd get all that from me (left to my own devices...)
I'm sure mine will improve dramatically as she and I will spend some quality time together over the next few months...maybe her techno smarts will rub off on me...?

Technology

So far the most frustrating aspect of planning a thru hike is trying to create a group on ONE of the communication options on this stupid phone...the group I created in my phone contacts seems useless so far...my intent was to have the ability to send a mass text if needed but I can't find that my group is a contract option when I tried...
So then I created a group in my AOL contacts...that works great if I get on the internet on my phone, sign in to AOL, compose a new message then send...however I cannot do that through my AOL shortcut on my phone...it seems as though when I compose a new email from AOL accessed from the shortcut on my phone...it draws from my PHONE contacts instead of my AOL contacts....so that's inconvenient...then there's this whole google contact thing...circles and google +...I don't even know where to start with all that as I don't want a repeat of Facebook....
So..blah, blah...I feel old and technologically challenged...whatever happened to just packing your pack and going for a hike....and just letting people wonder if you're ok...

Smarty butt phone

Sunday Feb 10.
Just posted hiking announcement on face book tonight and have gotten several comments already...so now I'm testing using office to compose journal entries, compiling them for several days and storing on my smarty butt phone, then posting them weekly or so to the blog...i have no idea if this logic is flawed as I've not done any of this before...i am liking using the Swype keyboard, though..amazing how accurate it is....

Low profile

February 11,2013

Since zag posted about pack weight i had to go check mine, of course.i realized its been awhile since I've been focused on counting ounces...my "obsession du jour" has been something like "is my Patagonia a nano (60g primaloft)or a micro (100g )...i think it's 60 cuz it's so light...will that be warm enough? The micro is also windproof so wouldn't that be way better? What if it weighs too much our isn't add compressible?
..
But should i just get a vest to add just a bit of warmth to my existing nano? Good grief..how can a vest be so expensive?? It doesn't even have sleeves!
Oh look..micro jacket is on sale big at moosejaw and they have my size..in orange.even better
So i go weigh my pack...it's 23 pounds without food or water....and without that micro that i ordered..free 2 day shipping to boot..i haven't decided which layering system to take..cold and wet for many days but hot and sweaty while hiking...you'd think we hadn't been planning this for 6 Months....
indecision; it's one of my worst but most familiar enemies....
So my micro puff jacket should be here soon...I'll see how out fits with the system...i can always return it....or wear it next year...it's bright orange so I'll be low profile...