Sightlines

De-constructing '07

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007. Aren't you curious about what lies ahead in the New Year? Seems like every year at this time, a host of unanswerable questions surface: Can I keep running injury-free? Will the kids be OK? And then there are those beefy existential ones: How will work unfold? How will our marriage go? Will my creativity diminish? Will I still be alive next New Years?

Perhaps this past year holds some hints, some signs of what might lie ahead. And of course we have only limited control. So  I wonder about the intersection of planning and randomness, about the mix of intention and serendipity. Whatever happens, it promises to be interesting and that's good enough.

Looking back, I'd call 2007 the Year of Running Doggedly. There was the 6.7 mile Shore Run in June; a 1/2 marathon on Labor Day; then the full meal deal of 26.2 miles on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. So does that portend more running next year? Probably. But the max might be a 1/2 marathon.

The other non-work activity--if I can call it that--that has been important this year has been meditation practice. What began with an introductory class in January continued through the year, reinforced most Tuesday evenings with a "sit" and then a Dharma talk sponsored by the Seattle Insight Meditation Society.

I didn't get to a Christmas letter this year, so here is a brief review of the highlights, by month:

January: Ruby Beach on the WA coast. Evening. Lizzie romping on the beach. Cold wind. Lots of photographs.

February: Vancouver and Stanley Park. Amazed by all the downed trees that were blown down in the December storm.

March/April: At the end of March began a 5-day silent meditation retreat at the Cloud Mountain Retreat Center. Settling, settling...

May: Watching my son, Will, give a thumbs up as he received his diploma at the University of Portland. One proud Papa Bear.

June: Visit from childhood friend, Miguel and his wife Faye. Visit from bro-in-law, Terry and El.

July: Memorial Service for Connie's mother, Grace, who passed away in Penticton, BC.

August: Annual rendezvous with Peggy, Ed, Bill at "Camp Lindbergh" in Montana

Sept: Finished 1/2 marathon

Oct: My daughter, Anne, turned 21. She's a junior at Western WA University, majoring in Physical Therapy. And a short but lovely trip to Vancouver Island. Watched migrating salmon.

Nov: To Missoula to give two talks on "Effective Patient-Clinician Communication." Thanksgiving in Portland with bro, sis-in-law and family. Crossed the finish line of the Seattle Marathon. Utter relief.

Dec: Christmas Eve with Anne, Will and Connie. Walked the neighborhood where folks put on luminaries (candles in brown paper bags). No rain, magic in the air. Cheers... And Happy New Year!

Hassle-free Backup

Sunday,  December 30, 2007. OK, the subject of backing up your computer may be a yawner, but bear with me... I found an easy, inexpensive way to quickly backup your files: SyncBackSE, from 2BrightSparks.com. And while I resist New Year's Resolutions, I make an exception for this one--which I hope you will join me in: do frequent back-ups.

But wait, why not do some housekeeping first and delete all those no-longer-needed files? There's a great little program called CCleaner that does a better job than Windows. It's free (although one can donate through PayPal), and totally simple.

Once you've completed a full back-up, subsequent backups, using "Fast Backup" only target new or changed files.

You get a 30-day trial period, and if you opt to buy, it's $30. Having two hard drives fail in the last six months, I'm in the ranks of the faithful backer-uppers. One of my routines is to take one of my two external drives off-site, to work actually, so that if theft, or fire happens at home, I still have all my files. Compulsive? Of course. But why not harness neurosis in the service of peace of mind?

Snoqualmie Falls, Rain, Snow

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007. Well, we've had it all this weekend--rain, wind, sleet, snow. All of which spelled opportunity for photos.

With all the rain we thought Snoqualmie Falls would be pretty cool, so we headed for Salish Lodge. Not the pricey dining room, but the upstairs "Attic"--a pub of sorts. An over-priced, barely warm, long-delayed burger added up to one conclusion: never again.

But never mind, the view of the Falls was lovely. No mobs of sightseers, and the rain had diminished. I went from 1/8 sec exposures to 250. Along the railing someone had built a 6-inch snowman. A cute little creation. The viewing area is high above the river, and looking down, there was some terrain that was visually quite interesting. More pictures--of course...

From there we made our way to Falls City where resident hang ornaments in trees along the Snoqualmie River. There were some interesting configurations of light and shapes through the rain on the windshield. And there was one huge salmon, decorated, and resting on a trailer.

One can only conclude that in Falls City, they take their decorating very seriously indeed. Cheers.

Recommendations

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007. I have two recommendations for you: the film, "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," and a much more prosaic one: back-up your hard drive. This second one comes with more umph than a mere recommendation--more like a heart-felt urging that you cross your heart and swear on the graves of your ancestors that you will back-up regularly.

No, I didn't have a disaster, but....one of my two internal hard drives failed. Approximately 100 gigs of data gone. And this was adding insult to injury because an external drive also failed a couple of months ago. Fortunately I back up to another external drive so all of my files, all of my pictures are intact.

But having only one back-up drive is making me close to sleepless in Seattle, so with the advice and oversight of "Dave the Computer Guy," I am adding back another internal drive--and an external one too.

When those are in place I will resume my weekly practice of backing up one external drive and taking it to work so that I have "off-site storage." For that second internal drive, I will also back up to it and use it for video work--it's a 650 gig device.

We all know the adage: it's not a question of if, but of when our drives will fail. (hardware and body, right?!). Someone once said, "To the blind, everything is sudden." How true. OK, end of sermon.

Now, about that movie; It takes place around 1920-21, during the Irish War of Independence. It's a beautifully filmed piece. But heart and gut-wrenching. The Seattle Times gave it a rare 4-star rating. Cheers.