Tonight I need to begin with a quick FYI announcement before I proceed with the inventory of the day's events. A couple of days ago, I began to see little notices popping up in the corner of my Chromebook screens - "Attn: this device is no longer supported with current updates". That was the gist of it, though there might have been some terminology I am forgetting. The first message appeared on Chromebook Two at Pearl's. I think that was last Friday, and then over the weekend the same message appeared on Chromebook One here at home. At first I just shrugged it off. "Hmmm, no more Chrome updates....well, no biggie. I don't use all those apps anyway". The only thing I use my Chromebooks for is the Internet and posting photos via the USB port. I have a few things stored in my files, mostly music, but not tons of stuff. I know Chrome updates it's firewall and stuff like that, but really I just figured that whatever current one I had would keep working just fine.
The problem is that I had never heard about something Chrome builds into it's systems, called "EOS", or "end-of-service". I only found out about EOS because I had to do some Googling this morn, after Chromebook One kept freezing and crashing whenever I tried to use Facebook. Other sites worked fine, but FB crashed the Book every time I clicked on anything. So I Googled "Why does Chromebook crash when I use Facebook" and a bunch of links came back, mostly from computer-related message boards. That's how I found out about Google Chrome's policy of EOS, where they basically stop updating any Chromebook after five years. This ultimately forces Chromebook users to buy a new one after the five year period is up, because - while the Chromebooks will still operate (they will turn on and receive many if not most webpages) - other stuff will start to go wrong, like Facebook freezing up and crashing. Also, tonight I tried to post a pic from my hike this afternoon, and the photos would not upload from the photo stick in the USB port onto the Files app. The contents of the photo card did not appear as it usually does. It was as if I had not even plugged it in. I tried to pay my phone bill, and the ATT page wouldn't load. So I guess EOS results in a lot of little stuff going wrong, enough to eventually drive you nuts so that you buy another computer. And they are banking on that you loved your little Chromebook because it was so inexpensive and so easy to use, and because Chrome sets everything up for you. You don't have to be a computer wizard to operate them.
And while I am bummed about the EOS Five Year policy, I think Google made a pretty good bet about their Chromebook users. I do indeed love my Chromebooks - and I don't know jack about Windows and setting up my own firewalls, and all the tons of other stuff people do on other laptops. So I will be buying another Chromebook, a new one that will give me 5 more years of easy service. In fact, I will buy two (one to use at Pearl's), but not at the same time, maybe a month or two apart.
For the immediate present, I am gonna try to get by with the Chromebooks I have, at least for a few days or maybe a couple weeks, so long as they don't completely conk out on me. But I really wanna post my pictures, so I will probably buy the first new one by the end of the week.
In any event, I wanted to mention all of this just in case I can't access Facebook all of a sudden, so you will know why. Right now, it seems to work if I don't leave it onscreen for too long. Normally, I have FB open in it's own window all day long, but for now I will just check it every so often for five minutes at a time, then close it again before it crashes. Hopefully this blog will post too. It will take me at least a few days to search Chromebooks at Best Buy and Amazon, and find a new and fairly inexpensive one to purchase. I will go with Acer again. Both of my current ones are Acers and they work like champs.
Meantime, keep your fingers crossed for no crashes or complete conk-outs. See you on FB in five minute spans at various times throughout the day. ///
Okay, so now for the regular blog. Well, today I did it. I did a Mega Hike, maybe the longest one I've ever done. At 3pm, I drove out to O'Melveny Park, because it has some hills in the back, and I figured I needed to get my legs back in shape if I ever wanna go back to Rocky Peak or any of the other steep hikes I used to go on in 2014. I know I can do The Slide at Santa Susana with no problem, but some of my former hikes are a lot steeper. I was in great shape in 2014, and I'm still pretty good now, but it's a leg thing more than a cardio thing. Those steep trails are hard on the leg muscles if you haven't done 'em in a while, and ever since my job became more time consuming, I haven't had time for the tough ones. I've mostly just been going to Aliso, which is a flat hike, and Santa Su, which has it's steep spots, and is 800 feet of elevation gain, but it's not as tough as some of the trails I used to do.
So today at O'Melveny, I went to the back of the park and started down the O'Melveny Trail, which heads into the western edge of the San Gabriel mountains. Actually, that trail splits the gap between the San Gabriels on the east side, and the Santa Susana mountains on the west side. The San Gabriels look like mountains, they are sharp and rocky and you can't climb them (no San Gabriel trails at O'Melveny). So the O'Melveny Trail winds back a half mile through flat ground and then makes a hairpin turn to ascend the Santa Susanas instead. Those mountains are actually higher than the adjacent San Gabriels, but they look more like high hills. The Susanas are soft and rounded. Well, anyway, when I go to O'Melveny I usually go a short way up the hillside and then head back. As you know, when I am at my job I only have about 45 minutes nowdays to do a Quickie Hike. But today was a day off, so I thought "what the hell". And I kept going up the hillside.
It is one steep trail. My success today was due to the fact that I stopped every hundred yards or so to give my knees a break, because they weren't used to the angle of climb. But I wasn't breathing hard, and I kept going, and soon I was pretty high up. I saw a Red Tail Hawk who was slightly below me. Then I thought, "well, this trail is supposed to lead to Mission Point", which is the second highest point in the Valley, after Oat Mountain. So I kept going. I'd been to Mission Point once before, in 2014. I saw the locally famous Three Trees and sat on the bench at the top. But I had taken a different route to get there, a shorter more direct trail called the DeCampos Trail. That one is steep too, but less so than the O'Melveny. It is also about a mile shorter.
It was about 4:30 by now. I'd been hiking and climbing for over an hour. I passed several people who were coming back down and I figured that they must have been to Mission Point and were now returning the way they came. "It's gotta be within striking distance now", I thought. So I kept climbing and going around bends and switchbacks. Finally I saw an iron fence that I remembered from 2014, when I came up the DeCampos Trail. That fence was put up by the Gas Company, which owns some of the property up there. But I knew I was near the top, and then I saw the Three Trees as well.
"Might as well go all the way up", I thought.
So I did. It took another 15 minutes from the Three Trees, which are visible from the Valley floor. I can see them way up at the top when I drive up Reseda Boulevard near my neighborhood. Now I was up there too, standing in their shade. I took a few photos and then hiked the rest of the way to the top, where there is a bench and a marker that lets you know you have arrived at Mission Point, elevation 2771 feet.
It's not the highest mountain in the world, less than one tenth of Everest, and you have a trail to follow. You don't have to be a champion rock climber. But it's still a doggone good hike, and a very steep climb most of the way. I was glad I kept going to the finish : 2.7 miles from the parking lot, and almost 1800 feet of elevation gain, almost 400 feet more than to the tip of the Empire State Building.
All told, the round trip back to the car was 5.4 miles, and the climb and careful descent figured into the workout too. "Not too shabby for 58", I thought.
So now, I've gotta keep doing it at least once a year to maintain things. I know I'll be able to do it at 60, no problem. 70? Why not. Just keep going and doing it. And don't think that far ahead anyway, Ad - you dummy! What are you trying to do, age yourself? For now, for today, it was a good hike, and it felt great. :)
Tonight, I watched a great movie called "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941), with an all-star cast including James Cagney, Olivia DeHavilland and Rita Hayworth. The time is The 1890s (aka The Gay 90s, meaning everybody was happy). Young Cagney and his pal Jack Carson are after the same gal who passes by their construction site every day. She is Rita Hayworth, "The Strawberry Blonde". She likes Cagney, but Big Jack Carson is a mover and shaker and he steals Rita away. He takes over the construction business too, and becomes owner. Then he offers Cagney a job seemingly out of sympathy, but that's not really the case because he plans to use Cagney to take the fall if his fraudulent construction practices are ever discovered.......which of course they are.
Cagney goes to prison, which he does in almost every movie he ever appeared in.
Prior to all of this, he has married Olivia DeHavilland, the beautiful but less-flashy friend of Rita The Strawberry Blonde. In prison he studies to become a dentist, and the plot plays out from there.
"The Strawberry Blonde" was one version Hollywood's idea of a romantic comedy in the early 1940s. In this case, it is a Period comedy, set in the 1890s, an idealized decade in American history. The idea of equal rights for women was just beginning to gain steam. This is portrayed in the movie by the DeHavilland character, who demonstrates her modern way of thinking by way of speaking her mind with quiet strength.
Yet again, we have acres of story and script, way too long for me to go into on a night when I have written much about other stuff, but as always I commend the master screenwriters of that era, the Golden Age, when a motion picture story had all the many details of real life, even if they were blown up into idealistic fantasy.
Ten Stars for "The Strawberry Blonde", and Two Huge Thumbs Up. This movie has got it all : star power, laughs, drama, and most of all romance. Your heart will be on your sleeve as you watch, which is where it should be anyway, as you live your life.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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