Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Bill Buckley

When Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique died I meant to write a blog about how The Feminine Mystique impacted my life. I can remember  exactly how I felt when I read it, how the truth of it hit me, and how it shaped my future. I never got around to writing that blog. So when Bill Buckley died on February 27th I was determined to not just think about what I would write but this time to actually write it. I really want to try to write about why Buckley was one of my heroes, about how much I admired the way he lived his life, and last but not least about how much I enjoy his books, especially his sailing books.

Buckley’s four sailing books are among my favorite books of all time. I
picked one up last night and each place I turned to I
found something thought provoking and interesting. He used a lot of big
words. When I read his books I usually kept a dictionary by me. I loved
the fact that he challenged me. He made me think. I always felt that
when I read Buckley I knew him, I was just a little bit his friend.

A lot has been written and spoken about him since his death. I read the Newsweek cover story and the Wall Street Journal editorial. I watched the Sunday Morning news shows’ tributes to Buckley. I just watched the Charlie Rose show about Buckley. They all reinforce what I already knew. I admired the man and I aspire in many ways to be like him. To be intelligent and articulate, to be known by my friends as someone who treats everyone equally, to believe in the human spirit, To strive to do many things well,  (Buckley wrote 50 books, he wrote newspaper columns, made speeches, hosted a television show, sailed, skied, played the harpsichord and spent time with his friends.) to never be satisfied.,to study, to think, to write and most of all to be the best possible friend to my family members and friends.  At the end of the Charlie Rose show about Buckley, Rose spoke about how much Buckley’s friendship meant to him. Charlie Rose was choking up. I have never seen that happen before. Rose spoke about how important it is to spend time with your friends today because "there is no tomorrow."

Snowshoeing to Chickadee Ridge

Today about 10 of us from the Sierra Canyon hiking and snow shoeing group went snow shoeing to Chickadee Ridge. The views of Lake Tahoe from the top are stunning. Unfortunately when I took my camera out to start taking pictures I discovered I had left the memory card at home. Damn! So that means no pictures unless you want to look at the pictures I took when we hiked there last September. I had to head back to the car soon after we got to the ridge top because I was scheduled to go to a doctor appointment with my Dad. But the rest of the group went on along the ridge. It is basically the route of the Tahoe Rim Trail but there is so much snow that of course there is no trail.

update 3/12
One of the guys who I was snowshoeing with sent me some great pictures he took on this trip. You can see us feeding the chickadees. Thanks Paul!
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Earthquake and hikes

A sharp jolt woke me up early Saturday morning. I realized immediately that it was an earthquake – a pretty substantial one. If the epicenter was more than a few miles away then I thought it must have been quite a big quake judging by how strong it felt and sounded to me. It took me a while to go back to sleep but eventually I did. First thing Saturday morning I checked out the quake on the USGS website. They described it as being 2 miles ENE from Verdi-Mogul. That is exactly where I live! It was only a magnitude 3.0 but no wonder it felt big. I was almost on top of the epicenter. Today I put the exact coordinates into my GPS and found out that it was actually centered about one mile to the east of me. I think I’ll use the GPS to go check out the exact spot.

I received the GPS for Christmas and I’ve been having fun learning how to use it. Yesterday I hiked 3 miles up the mountain we live on. The top of Peavine Mountain is a long way off but going 3 miles up gave me a good work out and some great views. Where I turned around I saw a herd of about 40 deer.

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The hike yesterday was so nice that today I decided to do another out my front door hike. I also decided to try to find my first geocache using my GPS.  This time I headed down hill. A new road is being built that will connect us much more directly with interstate 80. It is supposed to open this spring. I walked down the new road, across old highway 40 and down to the Truckee River. The geocache was fairly easy to find. It was kind of exciting to find my first one!

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I decided to try to find another geocache nearby. It was back up the hill from the river. The location was supposed to be in this old car but I couldn’t find the cache. As I was making my way back home I startled some more deer. It was fun hike and a beautiful day. I am inspired to find some more geocaches!

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Now that I’m home I’ve checked out the clue to the cache. Maybe later this week  I’ll try again to find it.

What I did on my last 7 March Firsts

On March 1st my friend Christina did a great blog list of what she was doing on March 1st for the last 5 years. She is participating in the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) challenge to post a list every day in March. I’m not going to do that but I thought I would tell you what I was doing on March 1st for the last several years. It is always surprising to me how time goes by and how my life and the lives of my friends and family change.

2002 – I was working at Sun and spent the day in an all day managers’ meeting.

2003 – Duke and I ordered our wedding invitations.

2004 – I had a piano lesson and and worked all day at Sun then went birthday shopping for Duke.

2005 – I worked at Sun all day and was busy studying for my CFP exam. My March 2005 blog entries are here.

2006 – I was working at Intuit and went out to dinner with Bonnie, Bill and Duke to celebrate Duke’s and Bill’s birthdays. My March 2006 blog entries are here.

2007 – I was retired, I picked up Aidan at the baby-sitter’s and went with Shan to his 6 month check up. My March 2007 blog entries are here.

2008 – Last Saturday the 1st of March I was in the Bay Area visiting. I had breakfast with one friend, lunch with other friends and dinner with Shan, Aidan, Valerie and Vicky.

As you can see I’ve been blogging for more than three years but you may wonder how I know what I was doing on March 1, 2002 . Like Christina I also have a Journal 10+  . I don’t always get around to writing in it every day but I do enjoy looking back to see how my life is changing.

Dad’s Echocardiogram

As many of you know my Dad recently moved to Reno. His house in Escondido, California is for sale. He was staying with Duke and I while he waited for an apartment to open up at Classic Residence by Hyatt. A beautiful apartment overlooking the courtyard became available a couple of weeks ago and he is now moved in and settled. It is really nice having him near by.

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Dad has been working to get established with new doctors in Reno. Last week he found a cardiologist who he likes.  On Tuesday he had an echo-cardiogram. I went with him and got to stand behind the technician while she used the machine to look at his heart. The echo-cardiogram machine looked a lot like like the ultrasound machines used on pregnant women to check on their unborn babies. As teh technician placed the wand on Dad’s heart you could see it quite clearly.

Looking at Dad’s heart as it pumped was so cool. I could see the valves opening and closing like the swinging doors in an old western saloon. Dad’s heart on the screen was about 6 inches long and 3 inches across. I assumed that it was life size but she told me that the picture was enlarged. The upper heart chamber is only about 5 centimeters (2 inches) across. It is impressive to think of such a little organ pumping blood all through his body.

I would love to have worked on the software for the echo-cardiogram machine. My first programming job out of college was working on air traffic control software. I found it fascinating. I suspect that interpreting the bouncing sound waves for the echo-cardiogram is similar to interpreting radar returns for air traffic control. The software has to interpret the returns, display them, and give the operator the tools to analyze what she is seeing.  What a wonderful challenge.