Mar 24 2009

Gearing up

This past week has been a quiet one, what with Emma having caught a cold in karate class, and Eleanor staying indoors to avoid Tucson’s spring pollen. (Yes, even in the desert there is pollen, although much less than in other parts of the country.) Without my two companions to go hiking or bicycling, and no friends visiting from out of town, I’ve stayed indoors as well to contemplate future expeditions.

With the shift in emphasis away from full-time RV’ing, our options for travel have expanded. I have long wanted to get back into the backpacking mode that we enjoyed before Emma was born. Even though the Airstream is much more comfortable, there is something attractive to me about hiking out into the forest with only the gear one can carry, and pitching a tent in the midst of as much wilderness as modern America can allow.

We live in a terrific part of the country for backpacking. Not only is there a virtually year-round climate suitable for it, there are dozens of fascinating national forest sites all over Arizona that can only be reached on foot, or by small vehicle. We have mountain ranges a-plenty, with Native American and Spanish names that evoke mystery and history, like Chiricahua, Sahuarita, Santa Catalina, Dragoon, Tortolita. And despite the influx of spring pollen, this is a superb time of year to go explore them.

In the mid-1990s when Eleanor and I were childless and at our backpacking peak, we owned all the gear. Since then, much of it has disappeared, been donated, has worn out, or isn’t suitable for a family of three. We unpacked everything and realized that much of it was not going to make it into the 21st century, in a radically different climate, and in a situation where an 8-year-old was part of the equation. The tent was too small, the mosquito netting wasn’t needed, and the boots — victims of far too many muddy northeastern caves — were beyond hope.

We have been slowly acquiring the missing pieces, through sales and bargain-hunting. The collection of gear is now mostly complete, and the next step is to test it in real-world situations. It might seem self-evident that the camping gear is ready for use, but that’s often not the case. Will the lightweight pot balance on the stove without tipping our spaghetti into the dirt? Does everything fit into the backpack? Does the 20-year-old inflatable sleeping pad still hold air? Are the new boots comfortable for 10 miles of hiking with a 40-lb pack? Are we able to carry enough water for desert treks? There are many questions, and the best way to find the answers is to just go ahead and try.

Besides, it’s fun to play with the gear. I love the campstove, for example. I’ve had it for about 15 years and it still works great. Tonight I will fire it up on the patio and boil up some dehydrated dinner. We’ll eat with the backpacking plates and utensils, and wash the dishes exactly as we would on a backpacking trip. The test will even extend to doing the dishes exactly as we would on the trail.

Once the pollen settles down, the next thing will be to camp out a night in the tent, without Airstream support. Then we’ll go on an actual backpacking trip, probably in one of the nearby mountain ranges. The big goal is to be ready for a Grand Canyon through-hike in September, which will include two nights of camping and about 24 miles of hiking. If we work up to it and test the gear in advance, the big trip will be easy and fun. Plus, we’ll have the 8-year-old ready for it, which is no small consideration.

All of this might seem like we are being far too methodical, but you have to remember that half the fun is the preparation. On a quiet week indoors, working up the gear lists, shopping for deals, and testing the toys is a great way to get psyched for the trips yet to come.

Mar 17 2009

Inner spaces

I am finding that on those days when we do not have friends visiting from far away, I often wonder what to do with myself after a full session in the office. When we were on the road I would simply step outside and explore whatever the local area had to offer, because it was always different and intriguing. But now with the knowledge that we are in the same place we were yesterday, I have to push myself outside. It’s easier done when there is someone visiting. They provide me with that extra motivation.

That’s a shame because Tucson really does have an immense amount to offer, if one will just get off one’s posterior and take a look around. On Friday afternoon, Adam and I took a walk down the wash that passes through our neighborhood, following it downstream to wherever it might go. After a few miles of walking and zig-zagging, we’d discovered quite a lot of trail suitable for mountain biking, a massive tree with a treehouse, several large horse properties, a giant pond, several neighborhoods — none of which I even suspected existed. And it was all within walking distance of my house.

I have discovered that you really have to walk the washes and the alleyways to see the hidden parts of Tucson. Behind every house in the east side there seems to be a network of dirt alleys, which range from wide-open roads to single-track mountain bike trails overgrown with desert brush. These alleys were constructed to provide access for utilities, but they are also in some cases used as secret driveways to backyard parking. While the streets end frustratingly at every cul-de-sac, making good exploration almost impossible by car, the alleyways run for great distances without regard for development plat or economic stratum.

Adam and Susan have taken off for a week to do other things, so I’ve lost my alley hiking buddy for a while. But I am still intrigued at this hidden network of secret passages. A trail bike may be in my immediate future. Suddenly there’s a world of inner space to explore, right from my house, and I want to get to know it as intimately as the cotton-tailed rabbits do. A bike is the ideal vehicle for this program, and springtime in Tucson makes for ideal cycling weather.

We had planned to be in west Texas this week, attending a rally and then visiting Big Bend National Park. But circumstances intervened and we decided to cancel the trip to take care of other things. This left us with no travel planned at all, an unconscionable situation. We remedied that a few days ago by planning a trip to southern California for early April. Adam and Susan will be joining us again, along with Ken & Petey. It seems strange that we are going back to the area we just visited in December and early January, but the desert wildflowers are blooming and the weather is much warmer, so there will be things to do that we couldn’t do before. Besides, we never get tired of visiting that particular desert.

Our as-yet-unmet blog friends Bethany and Billy are up in northern California (Mendocino) in their Airstream experiencing the damp fog of the redwood coast. They’re blogging that experience quite well, so we have agreed to cover the southern portion of California. Now we just need someone to handle the central portion of the state and we’ll have it all wrapped up, Airstream-blog-wise.

In the meantime I will keep exploring Tucson’s inner spaces, and I’ll start bringing my camera along too, just in case I spot some interesting critters. The wildlife here is really exceptional. This evening we had a visit from one of the neighborhood’s Great Horned Owls, a creature I have never seen in real life outside of (a) a wildlife sanctuary or zoo; (b) this neighborhood. It’s amazing to me what lives here, and visits regularly. My fervent hope is to encounter some javelinas in a wash somewhere.

I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we now live in a place where we can have a palm tree and a saguaro cactus in our front yard, a Great Horned Owl and Cooper’s Hawk in the backyard, whitetail rabbits and Gambel’s Quail in the alleyway, and the occasional lizard sneaking into the house. (I had to capture one in the bathroom last week and put it outside — easy enough if you’ve got a bucket and fast reflexes.)

This environment isn’t for everyone, of course, but it’s fun when someone comes through for a visit and enjoys it enough to take a souvenir. Bruno and Leila, who visited about over a year ago on their annual vacation (from France), wrote today to say that the palm tree seeds Emma gave them survived the trip back to northern France — and now Bruno has palm trees growing in his kitchen on the cold and gray north coast of France. Our neighbor Dottie, sensing perhaps that we were nutty enough to take them, has given us three more palm trees for the back yard. Eleanor and I transplanted them yesterday. Around here, palm trees are practically weeds, but the novelty hasn’t worn off for us yet.

It’s all part of the inner space experience, I guess. We have to grow a few palm trees and a saguaro cactus to truly feel and appreciate the sensation of living in southern Arizona. In the spring we may even adopt a desert tortoise and give it sanctuary in our back yard (desert tortoises who have lived in captivity can’t adapt back to the wild, and every year there are always a few who need a new home). Eleanor is planning to put out a hummingbird feeder, too. I guess you could call it “putting down roots,” because we are planting and adopting things around our home base nest, but still we do it with a careful eye to future travel and try to avoid getting into things that would limit our options down the road. Fortunately, desert plants and animals are pretty self-sufficient.

It’s a constant battle in my mind between the things that keep us here and the things that send us out on the road. On one hand there are the nesting activities of home and the inner spaces that beg for exploration, and on the other hand there is the call of the unknown and the lure of friends and family scattered across the country. We think we have balance, but I am always questioning it. I suppose that never will end.

Mar 13 2009

Geeked out

I’ve been silent this past week (at least on the blog) because I’ve been immersed in a new computer. As you might guess, in my line of work I spend a lot of time punching the keys of my laptop. It’s the most important business tool I have, and every four or five years — just after I’ve gotten the current computer completely tweaked the way I want it — I buy a new one.

The latest new computer has been overdue. I have been running Airstream Life on a Mac Powerbook that I bought in 2004, and although it has been a durable and trusty machine, lately I’ve been feeling the pinch of obsolescence in little ways. Like my daughter’s clothes as she grows, the sleeves of the old Powerbook were beginning to look a little short

The new MacBook Pro that I bought to replace it will ease a few technological stresses. For example, my collection of photos (now over 100 gigabytes) had long ago outgrown the computer’s hard drive and was spread out over three external drives. The new computer can easily handle the entire catalog on its internal drive. iPhoto, the Apple “consumer” software I had been using to manage the catalog, is now replaced by the much more capable professional software called Aperture. Now I can manage my entire photo collection and get it organized the way I always wanted it to be.

The keyboard on the old Powerbook has been replaced once already, as my constant typing seems to erode the key caps to unreadability. I am hoping the new computer’s keys are more durable, but I’m not very optimistic. The last three computers I have owned have gone to their graves with worn-out keys. Someday perhaps computer designers will come up with a more durable plastic.

The old Powerbook has a dent near the power connector (a souvenir of a drop in Tampa’s airport) that makes the connection a little flakey. It is missing one of its four feet, so it wobbles a little in use. Two or three of the case’s screws have worked out and disappeared forever. The computer shows all the signs of a machine that has been in full-time service for years, but it still ticks along just fine, so I’ve dragged my feet on replacing it until last weekend.

The new MacBook Pro is a beautiful thing, if you’re the sort that gets misty over computer hardware. I must admit that I am. I’d rather have a slick new laptop than a shiny new car. I spend a lot more time with my laptop than I spend in the car. Actually, I spend more time with my laptop than I do my wife. She’s gone to bed, but me and my digital mistress are still up spending quality time together. So having a computer I can respect in the morning is really important to me, and perhaps that explains why — once every four or five years — I’ll spring for the big bucks required to buy a top-of-the-line Apple Mac.

One of the justifications for the upgrade is security. I’ve always been very aware that the loss of my computer could be devastating, so I have long had a program of backups, and secondary backups, in case that should happen. I keep an external hard drive with me when we travel in the Airstream and back up the critical data at least weekly. A secondary backup sits in a fireproof safe in an off-site location. But my old computer was so maxed out on disk space that it was a real challenge keeping all my sensitive data together, and secure. And with the airline travel I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been reminded that there are many ways that I could have a data security problem.

Let’s run through a typical scenario, and you’ll see what I mean. I take the laptop on a business trip, and while waiting for my flight, use the free wifi network provided at Tucson International Airport. Anyone can join that wireless network, and with easily obtained software, they can “sniff” the signals my computer is sending across the network. By doing so, they can steal my secret passwords, account numbers, and other information. A hacker can also observe the email messages I send and receive while I’m on that network.

Did you know that if you enter the US with a laptop or any other electronic device, the Customs and Border Patrol folks can take it without any justification, examine it, copy the data, and keep it indefinitely? It doesn’t happen often, but I can’t imagine anyone who would be happy about it.

Another common situation: What if my computer is lost or stolen while I’m traveling? It is loaded with all kinds of information that I really don’t want other people to have: customer data, financial data, passwords, medical records, personal bills, business plans, etc., plus that wonderful 100-gigabyte photo database.

So I’ve been thinking about data security, and reading articles online. It turns out that securing your data is much more complex than it looks. You’ve got to find ways to lock down the data when you’re away from the computer, and when you are transmitting data via the Internet, while keeping the computer usable. There are dozens of ways your data can be compromised, and most people aren’t aware of even the most rudimentary means to protect it.

What can be done, and the myriad solutions, could fill a book. I won’t try to explain it all here, but I will mention a few steps I’ve taken (some of these are Mac-specific).

First, I’ve encrypted my hard drive. On the Mac, a program called FileVault does the job. If my computer is lost, the data is unreadable without the encryption password. That’s probably the single most important change I’ve been able to make as a result of getting the new computer.

Second, I’ve started to use encrypted email services. This is available through Google’s Gmail, Apple’s Mobile Me, and various other services. Encrypted email is protected between my laptop and the mail server, so if anyone is sniffing a wireless network while I’m sending or receiving mail, they won’t be able to make sense of it.

But encrypted email services don’t protect mail once it is sent through the Internet, so I’ve also taken the extra-geeky step of obtaining a “personal security certificate” (free through Thawte and others). This allows me to encrypt my email so that only the recipient can decrypt it. The catch here is that I can only send encrypted email to people who also have personal security certificates. I only know one other person in that category, my longtime business associate Brett, but in the future I’m going to require that all employees and contractors who handle sensitive business data, obtain and use a security certificate.

Fourth, I’ve fixed my computer so that a login password is always required, even to wake the computer from “sleep” or “screen saver” state. If I walk away from the computer for a few minutes (say, to get a second muffin at Panera Bread), I can easily lock things up and unlock them when I get back, without restarting the computer. I don’t want to have to worry when I’m fetching a cranberry muffin.

Fifth, I’ve made my backups more robust. Instead of just copying critical files, I’m using Silverkeeper to make complete “clones” of the computer’s internal hard drive, on external drives. Those clones are complete copies of the hard drive, down to the last bit. If my computer is lost, I can plug the clone drive into any other Macintosh and boot it up just like my original. I’m back in business in seconds.

Sixth, I’ve begun using IMAP instead of POP3 for my email. This probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but suffice to say that using IMAP means I can access my email from various devices, send, and trash messages, from almost any device or computer in the world, and when I get back to my laptop everything I’ve done will be perfectly synchronized. This helps if I lose my computer. Before I can get my backup drive hooked up, I can continue to manage messages without dropping a byte.

After tweaking everything for a week, I’ve got the computer set up and locked down. It’s not perfect, but it’s light-years ahead of where I was a week ago. I’d still be devastated if the MacBook Pro were stolen or lost, but at least now I won’t be up all night wondering who is looking at my data. I’ll just be wondering what I’m going to do for a new digital mistress.

Mar 08 2009

Tucson Roller Derby

Tonight it was Furious Truckstop Waitresses against Vice Squad, and once I heard about it, I knew we absolutely had to be there. Roller derby … right here in Tucson? It’s an icon of American pop culture, right up there with drive-in movie theaters. I never thought I’d have a chance to see it live.

Problem was, Eleanor had memories of fierce hair-pulling antics and epithets screamed from the one roller derby she attended in Boston many years ago. She didn’t want to go, and wouldn’t let Emma go. So I dragged Adam and Susan, who are visiting in their Airstream motorhome, across Tucson to the place by the interstate where Tucson’s bravest babes battle in an oval track.

It turned out to more of a family event than reprise of “pro wrestling” or The Jerry Springer Show. Tucson Roller Derby is popular and fun. The rinkside was packed. The parking lot around the building was packed. We had to park two lots away. Sure, the rollergirls are colorful with tattoos and bruises, but they are also real people, not invented characters from the mind of a TV producer. They consider themselves athletes and do this for fun and exercise, not money or glory.

I wish the lighting had been better, or that I had a big honkin’ fast lens for sports. This was serious fun to watch and photograph. The crowd was almost as colorful as the rollergirls, and the halftime band were punk rockers called “The Fisters.” The announcers were a riot. So it was worth documenting. It was definitely worth the $8.50 for an advance ticket at Bookman’s.

Going to something like this helps break down the barriers that get between people. Here are a bunch of people who look nothing like me, do things that I don’t do, listen to (and play) music that I don’t, and take risks that I wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter, because in the end we’re all people enjoying a good time together. We share values. (I was watching the girls hugging each other at the end of the game, talking to each other, and signing autographs for the little kids.) We’re not divided by arbitrary lines (political, racial, economic, social, religious, etc.)

I like people who know how to get out in the world and have a good time. And now that I know Tucson Roller Derby is not a freak show, and that it’s less violent than most of what’s on TV lately (including football), I wouldn’t hesitate to bring my daughter along to see the fun. She could benefit from the role model of real women competing on the athletic field for fun.

Sadly, the Furious Truckstop Waitresses (FTW) got pummeled by the Vice Squad last night. Both teams had some strong players, but it was a lopsided score at the end, 185 to 33. I think with a little work FTW could come back in a big way. But it will be a while before I see that. They won’t be playing again until April 18. Next game is Iron Curtain vs. Copper Queens, on March 28.

More Tucson Roller Derby photos

Mar 02 2009

Thoughts from Room 1210

It’s 5 a.m. and I’m on the 12th floor of a Crowne Plaza hotel looking out the window. Down below in the parking lot I can see a white pick-up camper. It showed up just after sunset last night. The owners are fairly bold to spend the night in the parking lot of this hotel, especially when there are numerous open parking lots nearby and the hotel lot is quite small. Perhaps they are connected to the hotel in some capacity, because when walking by earlier I could see that they had strung an electric cord to an open socket on the nearby lamp post, too. Either that, or they have cajones the size of bowling balls.

Although I am ensconced in the plush trappings of the hotel, and it is cold outside, I still find myself looking down on the camper with a little wistfulness. The truck camper says something to me about the freedom of roaming around and staying where you want. I imagine that the occupants are on a big road trip, and I remember how it feels to pull up in a strange town and find a place to park for the night. It’s fun and frightening. I want to do it again soon.

When we came “off the road” from full-time Airstream travel last October, I didn’t think it would turn out like this. I have been traveling quite a bit lately, and much of it has been in the conventional venues of airplanes and hotels. I really envisioned months in our house, slowly and luxuriously exploring the nooks and crannies of Tucson, and occasionally slipping away for weekends with friends in the Airstream. Instead I have been flying around hunting for business and trying to survive a tough business climate for magazine publishers.

There is rarely anything memorable about modern air travel, except when awful things happen, which is probably why most people regard it as an experience simply to be endured. The only really good thing I can recall about my most recent 10 flight segments was the singing Flight Attendant on Southwest Airlines:

We love you
You love us
We’re much faster than the bus
We hope you enjoyed our hospitality
Marry one of us and fly for free

I’m already married, so if I had a choice I’d rather be traveling in the Airstream. But business happens at high speed sometimes, and then you fly the Airbus 319 (or the Boeing 737, or the Canadair RJ700, or whatever they’re flying that day). I’m on a two-day quick trip right now, and later this month I may have another one. It would be hard to complete these missions in the Airstream, especially with winter weather. Rapid travel is what I must do to survive, so that’s what I’m doing. I can take solace in the fact that the Airstream will be there for me later.

A peculiar aspect of jet travel is how quickly the scenery and climate change. Yesterday we were hiking in the Santa Catalina mountains, up the steep Ventana Canyon trail. We stopped about two miles up the trail and looked back on the rugged canyons, studded with saguaro cactus and palo verde, with the city of Tucson spread out below. It was breezy and in the 80s, and the springtime pollen was blowing around, which made us cough a little. We had lunch under a mesquite tree, and I thought, “24 hours from now, this will all seem like a far-off memory.” And now, here in a northern city with patches of snow on the damp, muddy ground, it does.

When we had the Airstream, that sort of change rarely happened. At 60 MPH, you can pass through a lot of terrain in a day, but the evolution of climates and landscapes happens at a speed you can easily absorb. The most dramatic change we ever had in a day was leaving Death Valley and driving up to Mammoth Lakes CA. Death Valley was heading for 116 degrees, but that evening we camped in a green pine forest with snow all around us. When your environment changes that rapidly, it’s nice to have familiar surroundings. When you don’t even have that (as in a hotel), it is much harder to stay on an even keel …

… which explains why I’m up at 5 a.m. I don’t sleep as well in hotels as I do in one of the two beds I know (the house and the Airstream). The Crowne Plaza has a wonderfully comfortable bed and even a handy little “Sleep Advantage” CD with soothing sounds. The booklet that comes with the CD lists ten “Sleep Tips,” most of which I usually observe naturally, but nonetheless here I am wide awake far too early, on what promises to be a very busy day.

Still, early mornings like this are an opportunity. I can get a jump on the day, writing a little, editing a little, and thinking without the slightest chance of interruption. It’s a chance to re-think priorities and consider options. Lots of people wake up this early every day and just get on with their routine, but since it’s a rare thing for me, it’s always bonus time. You’ve got to take the bonus time when you get it.

And the flip side of the rapid change in scenery is that it will all change back again in 24 hours. Tucson is getting warmer — the way I like it — and my daughter is getting taller, and my wife is expecting me with open arms, which are all things I can look forward to embracing. If I can’t travel with all the things that I love, at least I can get back to them soon enough.