Mt. Lassen

Mt. Lassen

Yesterday I joined some friends summiting Mount Lassen. It was a wonderful experience.

Getting there had its little hickups like any group trip. One of the vehicles overheated and we had to leave it at the entrance. Fortunately on the way out of the park it was 30 degrees cooler and down hill all the way home so the car made it back fine. We didn't let it deter us though. We piled into 2 vehicles like a bunch of clowns and drove up to the base camp to hike. It was really cool up there. It was about 65 degrees at the base camp while it was 95 degrees back home :)

While hiking it was the usual fatigue wise. Heavy breathing and heavy limbs in that high of altitude. We moved fairly fast as a group of 9. 2 of the girls had to stay back for various reasons and watched the cars. The light wasn't refracting too much at first but after about 20 minutes it started breaking forth into all sorts of colors. As you can see from the first sunset images it's kind of cyan and magenta. Right before dusk though it got insanely red and yellow. My image does very little justice to that slice of watermelon colored red and bright yellow. It was Gorgeous. The last 1/3rd or so we hiked was pretty much in the dark. At the top was amazing.

We were totally above all the pollution, dust, and fog. The night sky was lit up brilliantly. You could see a giant tentacle of the milky way arching from corner to corner of the spectrum. We had dinner up there. It was mainly sandwiches and some junk food people shared. Some of the girls managed to pack some coffee and hot chocolate that we decanted rather quickly. We stayed up there and talked, joked, etc for about 20 minutes after dinner then hiked back down. It got really cold. Probably freezing.

The hike down was faster and we all managed to warm up a bit during that final stretch. The moon was just enough to light our path. It really helps having someone in front of you too to kind of know where a loose rock or something maybe.

Anyways, that's about it. Lassen only opens a few times a year now to do this so if you're interested check the dates with the office or website. :)

Cogs #1 golf tip

Wash your clubs. ;)

This seems to have a couple of beneficial effects.  The first is the practical one of course.  With a clean club face you are presented with more consistent precision in how the ball is going to be launched from your stroke.  The other effect is the placebo one.  You feel better with shiny clean clubs.  If you play or at least have tried you know golf is a mental game.  The second point also plays off the first one.  If your game is consistently better from a clean club face naturally you'll have more self confidence to play even better.  So when in doubt... wash your clubs shooter.

Cookie jar.

Maybe I'm getting old.  Born again.  Partial.  People are insane to think malls, city life, or digital conditioning can compete with this quality of entertainment.   I have fallen prey to the same logic.  It was only an injured heart that dictated it though.  Last Monday we went to Lassen national park.  For ten. Bucks you can get the cleanest highest quality entertainment known to man for an entire week.  I did some photography as you can see but fishing among other things is also available.  I'm so greatful to be a part of such a beautiful thing.

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

Haven't really put out so to speak on the quantum physics side of things like promised so maybe this video will help some in that area.  Its scientific data combined with her testimony of life, near death, death, and return.  Really good stuff.

And then it happened

I could post a lot of stuff about life in general but I guess I'll post this.  Cali is the sweetest place on earth I've found to date.  That's after searching hard and long.  Searching USA, Latin America, and Asia.  I maybe wrong but Cog has finally come home.  Cali, is a lot like Texas but with more possibilities.  If you ever thought it was just the bay area or LA then you were wrong.  It is mainly rural and hard to find another soul at times.  It is not expensive yet more affordable than what you may know.  The pic from my front yard will do justice.

oh yeah, and I have a holy neck beard now ...

Play

My brother bought my dinner tonight.  He has 3 and soon 4 kids all 1 year apart with a base number of 2.  What struck me  as so interesting was watching the children play this evening after dinner.

My nephews are all caucasions.  They were having such a good time unhibitedly with a hispano kid.  Nobody knew names, yet they were making up nicknames and playing like they knew each other forever.  It was such a beautiful experience.

There was no classification of race, age or any other label.  No premade judgement.  Why don't we as adults do this?  It's because of our injured hearts.  While we can draw on so much knowledge, we use it for evil to often times when it could be used for creative pleasure.

In contrast, often times we break through these walls only to feel weird when it's all said and done feeling like after the good times are over that we should fall back to a pre-medative idea.  Long live unconditional love.

New Cog

Hello all.  This is Cog's new blog for happenings in the Wild wild West.  Expect FOSS, Openmindedness, Quantum Physics, and International Ramblings.  Seeya Space Cowboy. ~