Mele Kalikimaka e Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Mele Kalikimaka e Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I pray thee well and hope this annual letter finds you in good health and spirits. Even better - with vitality at every age and stage. What an interesting year I’ve had. After 42 years of nursing and one year on the COVID frontline, I retired April 1st - no joke! Eight months out, I’m still trying to find my rhythm. The pandemic has surely spared me the common malady of instant over-commitment. The one thing I have dedicated myself to is daily exercise: a 4-6 mile walk, sometimes 8, and/or yoga via Zoom. With another new COVID variant on the rise, I’ve not returned to the yoga studio. Additionally, my cats have learned that when my yoga mat is rolled out, I’ll be on the floor - just where they want me. I get a good core workout and intend to add some light weightlifting in the new year. My trek on the Everest Trail in Nepal was postponed until April 2022 (fingers crossed). That opened my calendar for national travel. Though I currently loathe flying, I did fly home to Hawaii for nearly the entire month of May. There, we stood on a shallow sandbar in Kaneohe Bay to scatter the ashes of my parents, Aunt Cornelia, and Uncle Sammy. The day was beautiful and it felt “glorious” as my mother often proclaimed.

Kaneohe Bay: photo taken from sandbar.

In early June I attended the 3-day, Indian wedding of Mona and John in Long Beach. What a thrill! I attended with my dear friends, the Singh’s, whose large family has been so welcoming to me. I loved every minute! In late August, Bill (a faithful backpacking buddy on loan from his wife) and I packed into BAM (Bacon’s Adventurosa Mobile) to head north along the coastal route, then east, paralleling the Canadian border. Mostly, we camped in national and state parks. We visited seven National Parks (NP): Redwoods, Olympic, North Cascades, Glacier, Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Caves, and Badlands. We also visited Devil’s Tower, Mt Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. Our terminus was Ann Arbor, MI to rendezvous with niece Lael and her family, sister Gina, and her husband Mike. I made the westward, return trip solo, never driving more than 300 miles/day. Again, I visited national parks: Cuyahoga, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Great Basin. I met innumerable, wonderful Americans and fielded many questions about my van.

While I am thinking of it, here are some peak-season NP tips. You’ve undoubtedly heard that NPs are over-loved and overcrowded these last years. Some of them require timed-entrance passes, purchased online. So my biggest tip is to get into the park before the rangers manage the gates each morning. The park gates are typically open 24/7. Rangers begin controlling the entrances between 7-9am. Passing through the gates early will spare you the long, exhaust-fumed queues into the park. Many rangers now close their gates when park capacity reaches a specified limit. (When I arrived at Glacier and departed Arches, the gates were closed = no entry.) In Glacier NP, we awoke at 5am to be on the road by 5:30. So do some research before you go. Pack a cooler with food and hit the road. Also, be aware that all caves tours are now booked online several weeks in advance. Lastly, a senior “Golden Park Pass” is available at 62 years for a one-time fee of $80. (Free to Wounded Warriors and war-time vets with required paperwork). Not only does this provide free park access for one vehicle and four people but it also halves the camping fee. Wowee! Who knew? In November, best buddy John and I retraced my earlier trip up Californian and Oregonian coasts into Washington state. As we approached the mountains, the roads were slushy, forcing a hasty retreat to the Columbia River Gorge - where we were pelted by another atmospheric river. We were duly impressed with the plethora of state parks along the Oregon coast - seemingly every few miles… and sooo beautiful! I might migrate that way as drought is an increasing problem for California. I continue to play music with my ukulele band KaBang! (Kaneko, Bacon, and Yang). With bass player Wade, we typically hold weekly, outdoor rehearsals. I continue to take ukulele lessons though I am not sure my performance actually reflects that tutelage. Nonetheless, my teacher Carla (from Waipahu, Oahu) is skilled and patient. We collaborate on all the musical arranging I do for KaBang! and I’ve learned a bit about music theory, jazz, and how to modulate pitch to escalate musical movement in the distinctive style of the Brothers Cazimero (for you with Hawaiian musical roots). Good fun! Best Books Bacon read in 2021: The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff is an oral history of 9/11. With time zone disparities between the coasts, I saw the Twin Towers fall on TV before I went to work. I worked in an Emergency Dept. so I was not glued to a TV that or the following days. Time and distance buffered me from the granular events of 9/11. This book is an account from survivors and their personal experiences on 9/11. It is not necessarily factual, as few survivors had the facts. I found it moving and enlightening. Remember how we rallied for one another after 9/11? This book left me feeling hopeful for the American spirit and our capacity to care deeply for one another. You can also listen to an abridged version of the book in a podcast called Long Shadow - which you can find for free on your favorite pod-catcher. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. In Caste, she argues that the racial tensions in the United States are better explained through the lens of caste, not race… [She examines] the eight tenets of a caste system, how the caste system affects the lives of people in the upper and lower castes, and how we can move away from caste and create a more equitable society. I love books that enlighten and move me, this was one. I am currently reading Grant, the definitive biography of Ulysses S Grant by historian Ron Chernow. I dunno… it seemed fitting to understand the events of the Civil War more fully. What’s on tap in 2022? First and foremost, I am making a commitment to switch to automated, randomly-generated, long, and complex passwords for my devices (iPhone, iMac, iPad). Like a dinosaur, I have resisted - and you know the rest of their story. If COVID allows, best-buddy John and I will trek on the Everest Trail to 15,500 feet. Then on to Egypt, for I have friends in Cairo. We hope to see The Great Pyramids of Giza, Alexandria, Luxor, and Petra. I also hope to volunteer for 1-2 weeks in Yosemite this season. Dat’s real soul food. Perhaps a cross-country trip to New England to see the fall colors? What is going on in your world? What inspires you and keeps you moving? How is your family? I would love to hear. Keep an open mind to changing science. Walk with caution. Use kind words and a gentle tone. Love self and one another. E Hookaulana (celebrate) 2022! With love and much Aloha ~Lorin