Have checked off bears, now what?

Ok, so one of my biggest excuses for not making it out to the trails this year has been bears and mountain lions. Realistically, I really ought to be hiking with someone, too, but lots of folks go hiking alone without being eaten. But nonetheless, I was not out hiking before this cause I was afraid of the bears. Now that I have survived seeing a huge bear while hiking alone, I can check that adventure off my list and go on to a new one. The list so far:

Bears
Mountain Lions
Hiking 14ers
Horseback riding
Climbing
Skiing
Biking
Driving
Swimming


Yes, swimming is last. I may never bother with that one, really, cause I hate panic attacks, and don't really need to swim in Colorado. Mountain lions are dangerous enough for someone my size to be dealing with alone that I consider that one optional, and up to the Universe to make happen. The rest require that I improve my fitness, and have the right time and situations, and for many of them enough money. Skiing will have to wait till there is enough snow, and climbing till I have someone who can teach me, and till I have the money for gear, for both really. Riding is not completely checked off yet, cause I still am lousy at trotting, and can't saddle my own horse yet, but I don't have a horse around that I could practice with. Driving takes a lot of money up front, so that will have to wait. I plan to get a bike in a month or less, but not till I start getting regular paychecks again from my new job. So hiking it is. Short hikes, leading up to longer hikes, and hopefully coinciding with availability of companions to hike with. I dread doing another 14er if I am as badly out of shape as I was for Pike's Peak, cause that was embarrassing. I hope if I am in better shape my high-altitude 'asthma' will go away, so I can not feel like such a wimp at the top of the next one. And really I need to do Pike's again before I would really check that one off. Yes, I know that mountain fairly well now, but I still have a few hundred feet left to go at the top. I suppose I should leave off the Mesa Trail and start doing the ones that go up instead, since I know I can walk 20 miles comfortably without much of an incline at 5000-7000.' Hmmm.

Musings on a Minor Theme

A theme that crept into the foreground a bit just at the end of a conversation this week- what really is useful? Is developing chemistry that furthers the development of H-fuel cells more useful than figuring out how ecosystems can recover from gross traumas like strip mining? Are both these goals more useful than figuring out what happens when electrons collide, or how to more adequately describe the fabric of our universe? Ayn Rand at least provides a basis for discussion in her requiring that we clarify, "useful to whom, and for what?" If the point of my life is 'my life,' and I find life more fulfilling if I feel I understand the Universe more fully, all three of these pursuits are almost equally useful. The chemistry might eventually enhance my ability to have affordable transportation, but it also helps with developing a more complete understanding of the workings of our universe. The ecology is personally fulfilling, and while having the knowledge in my head as to how ecosystem recovery works will be pleasant, seeing a former wasteland returned to a healthy state would be even more satisfying as a visible proof that my knowledge is accurate. Knowing how the universe works at a fundamental level provides the basis for those fundamental stories we tell ourselves, that allow us to feel we understand better how we fit in to everything around us. For me, knowing that there was some singularity in space-time, the Big Bang, and that one way or another the known universe has been expanding outwards, or maybe matter has been collapsing in on itself so that it looks like expansion, or whatever... This story lays the foundation for my everyday life, allowing me to have some perspective as to where I am in space and time in the universe. Obviously I might be happier if I stopped paying attention to physics at some point, since if I was happy with the 'classic' Big Bang theory, I might not want to drill holes in my story with any new ideas, but that would be akin to refusing to hear or see any evidence that the Earth is round, or that stars are huge objects outside our solar system that have no direct ties to Earth. Blinders create a very false sort of happiness.