Mobile post

Since I'm stuck sitting around in my apartment because of this broken foot, I'm trying out making a post from my phone.

I've been going to this one church here pretty much since I moved here since I moved here because it was the one the only person I knew out here went to and it's right across the street from my apartment, so it's convenient. I've tried a few others but haven't really found any that I like any better so I just keep going with the convenient one. However, lately, it seems like every message is about parents and children; now I don't have children and don't expect to for some time (long enough that I'd forget anything I hear by that time if it were to happen) and my parents are not exactly close by so a lot of the messages are not very applicable to my life. This is all leading up to today which was I think my worst experience at church ever. I was there alone since most of my friends go to an earlier service and for communion they decided to have families do it together and invite people who are by themselves with them. I guess I would prefer to just be alone and relatively invisible than to have random strangers inviting me to go with them. Then, the entire message was aimed at parents and was talking about things they should do to have a good relationship with their children. To top it all off, they had to use clips from a movie where a family goes to a lake in Wisconsin for a vacation, where I would be if I were back in Madison instead of out here. Typing this now, I realize it sounds kind of whiney, but it's a horrible way to start the day being reminded how alone you are in a place you don't really like. So now I'm beginning to wonder if I should look at some more churches, or what point do you just stop looking and settle for whichever one is convenient because they all seem pretty much the same, or just not go to one at all until I manage to move away from here? Were Blackhawk, FEFC Austin and Willow Creek unusual in not having every single example the pastors used be about families with kids and super busy lives?

Sailing

I finally got around to checking out the yacht club here and it seems nice enough, it's no Hoofers though. I stopped by on Saturday to take a look at the dinghys they had there and ended up talking to a few people there after they got in from a race. They invited me to come back Sunday to help with race committee and meet some more people, so I got to spend a bunch of hours out on the lake on a beautiful day, it was pretty good; wish I had a sailboat though. One of the guys I met is going to put me in touch with someone who needs crew so soon I should be sailing again. It is kind of funny moving out here from Wisconsin where we have to take all the boats out of the water because it freezes; here, they have to take them all out too, but because they drain the whole lake away, kind of expected sailing all year round.

Family reunion and work after a vacation

I got back from my family reunion/cousin's wedding a week ago, it was really nice. We stayed near Bend, OR; it is supposed to be the high desert but it seemed a lot greener and wetter than Folsom which as far as I know isn't in a desert.
We went for several good hikes around there. The first one was at Proxy falls on the way there while we were crossing the cascades. The falls was really cool, tall and wide with several channels of water coming down; unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it Another water fall on the same trail was much smaller but was interesting because it fell into this small pool but the pool had no outlets, all the water just seeps into the ground. Further on, we stopped at a lava flow and a stone observatory built at the pass which had nice views of Mt. Jefferson and two of the Sisters.
The next day, a bunch of us went hiking by Mt. Bachelor; the trail followed a freezing river and after a mile or so we were up to a point where there was still tons of snow on the ground. A couple of my cousins and I climbed down to a waterfall at this one and standing right in all the spray was freezing. Eventually, the snow got so deep that it was getting difficult to go continue, really slow at least (Who'd have thought we'd need snow shoes in July?).
I also got in some really nice mountain biking; there was a path from the house we were at to a national forest and then a mountain bike trail that followed a bluff along the river; it was really nice and with my pedals loosened from the last time I rode my bike, much much easier to catch myself instead of falling into a cactus or something.
Unfortunately, I managed to catch a nasty cold while I was there so that kind of ended the hiking and biking. I did go to the high desert museum though, it had a bunch of exhibits showing the history of the region (It did include the California gold rush, so maybe Folsom is in desert). There was a cool raptor show, the seat I got ended up being right in the middle of three of the perches the birds flew between and they flew just over the audience so that I could have reached up and touched them as they went past.
Along with all the fun stuff to do, there was lots of great food every day and it was nice to see some family I hadn't seen in a few years.
The trip back was painful because of the cold, dropping from 4100 ft to 100 ft managed to mess up my ears, I could barely hear the rest of the day; but, the scenery was really nice. I only finally felt completely better today. This was my view for a lot of the drive. That is Mt. Shasta, I'm thinking of taking a backpacking trip around it, maybe at the beginning of September or end of August, I'll need to check on deadlines at work. If any of you reading this wants to go, let me know.

Something to remember in January

So it has been over 105 here the last few days; back home it's only in the 70s which would be so much better. Next time I mention how nice the 60s are in January, just remember how much worse it is here in June. At least I can escape the heat pretty easily here. Today we decided to go down to the beach and eventually ended up at Point Reyes where it was almost cold, especially in the water. It was an interesting trip; we started out going to Stinson beach, but it was really crowded and there was a marathon or something happening so it was impossible to park anywhere so we headed up 101 to find another beach. We didn't find anything until Point Reyes though, so we stopped there and went to Drake beach. It was pretty nice, fairly empty, easy to park at, and it seemed like it might be closer too. The only problem was that it was cloudy all day, it seems like it is every time we go to a beach out here.