I’ve found myself drawn back to an idea I’ve carried for 26 years; biking across Washington State on the Palouse to Cascades Trail. A quick estimate puts the ride at roughly three to five days, depending on how often I stop for resupply or detour to explore points of interest along the way.With my knee not being what it used to be, this trip will have to be done on my ebike. That means planning for battery management. Scheduled charging stops or possibly building a small solar‑charging trailer to keep me moving through the more remote stretches.I’m not sure how all of this will come together yet, but I do know it’s going to take research, planning, building, and plenty of testing. After two and a half decades of thinking about it, it’s time to finally map it out and make it real.
I was back in the office today, welcoming a coworker after his three‑week vacation. It was great to see him again. He surprised me with a high‑powered laser pointer engraved with my name. It was gift for taking care of his son’s Roley Poley farm. I’m already thinking about taking it on my next camping trip and testing how far the beam reaches from a mountain top.
Other than returning the music CDs I borrowed from the library and cooking dinner, I didn’t really do much today. I just needed to take it easy and recover for this weekend as I will be heading to a water park to have some fun.
Just before bed, I slipped outside and sat beside the fire, letting its glow keep me company as I read Tales of the South Pacific.
Enjoing the cool summer night outside watching the start lit skies. It’s peaceful. I really should do this everynight, turning it into a ritual and not something I do occationaly. Being outdoors is something I love to do, yet for some reason in recent times, I do it sparingly.
When I do go out, it is almost always hiking or climbing up a dificult route. My body isn’t what it was use to. Back pain and my sciatic nerve in my left legs has been causing me to take it easy this summer. Most of my adventures have been in my small eBike on trails. I have to admit, most of my adventures take place durnig Autumn, Winter, and Spring. While Summer I mostly car camp or do research on location of intrest for my hikes. At the moment I am looking for abandon locations. This typically are mining or forestry locations that were quickly abandon, leaving behind equipment and buildings. Something like Monte Cristo in Washington State, but less known.
I am also very intrested in riding on abandon rail roads. At the moment I have some ideas on building a contraption that will allow my small ebike to ride on the rails. It sounds fun and there must be a few in Washington I can go for a ride.
I went for a night swim to just relax and look up upon the start. The water was 80 degrees, quite warm but felt nice. Very peaceful and still. I was just floating there and not thinking of anything, just absorbing my suroundings.
It’s good to relax, I really need to do more of this. Just be in the moment and take it all in.
It’s been a long time since I have writen on my blog. I miss writing for myself. Typically I write technical solutions for 8 hours at work. It very steril and lacks any personality. I feel like I haven’t grown as a writer, just stagnent.
Enough about that, over the past few days smoke has filled the air in Seattle. The sun is dim and the sky has an oragne hue in the late evening. Hopefully the fires are extinguished soon. I have been wearing a mask to help me from inhailing the smoke that is causing my head to ache tremendously.
I spend most of the day indoors next to an air filter and AC unit to keep me cool on these hot days. Hopefully the smoke will go away and I am able to get back outside and explore abandon mines and forestry equipment in the surrounding mountians. I have researched a few sites and need to get out to check them out.
I’m not feeling well today, so I stayed home from work and rested. I also spent some time working on my online journal workflow using an Android tablet with an attached keyboard. It’s not as easy as you’d think. My goal of keeping everything as simple as possible, ran into a few snags. I use TextExpander to insert my page template, but for some reason the trigger isn’t case‑sensitive on the tablet the way it is on my computer. This caused the trigger to activate on certain words, so I had to rename it to prevent that from happening. Another issue is that TextExpander only works in some applications but not others. For example, it works fine in Jetpack or Edge, but it doesn’t work in OneNote or Word. It’s just frustrating.
I really want my tablet to be my fun companion that I can take everywhere. My laptop is set up purely for productivity; it’s not something I’d describe as fun or uplifting. That’s the role I want this tablet to play. In the past, I used it for studying Portuguese on Duolingo and for taking notes in Microsoft OneNote. I’ve had this tablet for over a year, and I just need to make this happen.
I miss writing and posting things on the site, and I want to get back into it.
Today I began using my Kindle Scribe to write my daily journal. Over the past few days, I’ve been testing how well it handles handwriting-to-text conversion so I can easily post entries online. So far, it’s been smooth—the workflow is simple, and I genuinely enjoy writing with it.
It’s not fast or as efficient as typing, but that’s part of the appeal. After spending 9 to 11 hours a day in front of a computer for work, the last thing I want is more time at a keyboard. Writing on the Scribe feels different, more tactile, more peaceful. It’s thin, light, and the backlight is gentle on my eyes while still bright enough to write outside in the dark. The whole experience is just… pleasant.
Once I’m done writing, I let the device convert my notes to text and email them to myself. From there, it’s easy to copy and paste into my site. Compared to writing on a Surface Pro or Samsung tablet, the Scribe feels more natural. The pen-to-screen resistance is well tuned, something I appreciate as someone who enjoys writing on paper.
For me, writing is a slow, deliberate process. It’s not about speed or efficiency. And that’s perfectly fine.
It is that time of year again where I evaluate my life. What my aspirations and what I need to do to make them a reality. My position in the company I work for has changed. The company has reorganized and I am no longer a manager. I will be going to the premium support branch as a support technician. I am reevaluating if this is where I would like to take my career. I would increase my income moving there, but will not have a manager’s position. There is not a demand for managers in the technology sector right now with all the layoffs. I was transferred there for not doing a good job as a manager but a shift for the company to move towards services in addition to the hardware we sell. There is no guarantee when the branch grows that they will place me back into a management position. So for now I will make the best of the situation and go through the training to know all aspects of the products we make. This will add to my skill set and make me more valuable once the economy bounces back and the job market improves.
So what I am going to do in the mean time? Going forward I want to create a YouTube channel that shows people to resolve issues themselves. Find the most common issue of the week provide the solution. I can use it at work to step customers through the solution and hopefully even lessen the amount of tickets to solve.
As a manager I was pushing to change the culture of the company. I started a weekly game night afterwork which is gaining traction. I am planning to expand other departments to join. Last week I transformed a large meeting room that get little use and make it flexible so it can be used as a multi-purpose room.
I am in the process of changing my routine to include studying for my new position. My manager setup (computer and home office) is now setup for a technician role. I have archived my todo list, calendar, email, projects, interview process, agent reviews, browser favorites, text expander snippets, … to a clean basic setup.
For my personal life I am once again decluttering my life. I have little time to do this now, so I am will be slowly removing unwanted positions throughout the week and donating them to Goodwill at weeks end.
The key to getting all this accomplished is weekly planning and daily reflections in a paper planner. I am moving back to a hybrid planning system where I use paper and digital planning. It consumes more time but I feel the most productive doing it this way. My new 2026 planner is the larger A4 size. It much larger than my normal A4 size but it is so much roomier. It is not as portable, but it fits in my small travel bag and I can take it to work without issue. If I travel out of state, I will just use my Travelers notebook for the duration of the trip.
Well that is about it for tonight. I am tired but feel accomplished all I have done today. Office is cleared out, spent time with my son and daughter sharing experiences. Not just sitting down and watching tv.
I am starting back up my website after a long hiatus. A lot has changed and work has become more manageable. I also have a Samsung tablet with keyboard I am using. It is a device I can carry with me and not worry about losing it or damaging it since it’s low price. I can’t afford damaging or loosing my Surface Pro, hence I don’t carry it with me everywhere I go. It directly contributes on how I make a living. While the Samsung Tab S9 FE+ isn’t the fastest thing out there, it if very versatile and does what I need it to do with enough power to run all my applications I use. I have used it as a second monitor when I am fully mobile with my Surface Pro. I should do a complete review of this device, there is so much things I like about it and how I include it in my workflow. Dex works well and a desktop for android operating system.
It is getting late for me and I need to get some rest for tomorrow. Good night, everyone.
I have been feeling tired and overall not feeling health. I am eating right, but feel sick at the same time. Yesterday I was going to take a day off at work but we had 4 people sick, so I had to work through it. Today is an easy day, just a lot of meetings and little actual work. My sleeping habits are the same but I am not getting the rest I need for some reason. I am tired but I am getting my normal 8 hours of sleep. It’s weird.
Over the weekend, I went for a bike ride with my daughter to look for geocaching. We found 24 that day. It was fun, and we had one on one time with each other. Nobody interrupted our conversation. It was really nice.
Life in the Pacific NW 