I apologize to anyone who has had difficulty accessing our website over the past 2 days. I couldn’t get to it myself either, and trying to get to the bottom of the problem was like nailing jello to a wall.

Apparently, the problem wasn’t with our website hosting site, or with the connections here. They reported that it was some sort of network issue that was affecting a segment of people — perhaps people coming through a certain internet provider, or from a certain region. They mentioned possible causes like construction workers digging up fiber lines.

I have no idea how many people were affected, and I’m sorry if you were one of them!

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I generally try to find a benefit or lesson in any situation, but I’m having a hard time with this one. From what I’ve heard, there’s nothing we can do to avoid such a circumstance in the future, and it’s just the nature of the net. If anybody out there has some tips, please let me know. I’d hate to waste this opportunity for a lesson!

We arrived in Sedona this afternoon, and it feels so good to be back!

I met our group of adventurous wenches this morning in Phoenix, then we headed up to Cottonwood, where we picnicked beside a lagoon, with big shady trees. It felt like an oasis in the desert!

Next stop was Tuzigoot, the ruins of a town built by the Sinaguans about 1,000 years ago, and mysteriously abandoned 400 years later. Who were these people? And why did they all leave this “oasis” spot in the desert? (Tuzigoot and the mysterious “abandonment” definitely deserve coverage in posts of their own, so more on that later!)

From Tuzigoot, it’s a quick hop to Sedona. Driving into Sedona is always spectacular, as the famous red rock landscape comes into view, and it’s always cool to share this amazing place with new people.

I’ve been here so many times, that settling into our uptown hotel feels like coming home. Get all the chores done, then relax on the hotel balcony, looking up at the rocks, and thinking “ahhh… life is good”. The view includes famous “Snoopy Rock”, lying on his back and looking up at the sky (on the right in the picture, click photo for larger version).

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We do Sedona tours for women a few times a year, in spring and fall. I always feel my spirits life when I come here, though I don’t know how much of that I can attribute to vortex energy vs. just getting away from my desk and spending time outside!

Tonight I’m going through “the change”. Again.

No, not THAT change! I’m just changing back into my alter ego, “tour leader”. Though I run a travel company, most of my time is not spent personally leading trips. Most of the time, I’m working on product development, marketing and promotion, processes, finances, systems, etc. — everything that’s involved with running Adventurous Wench. But a few times a year, I get to go out and lead a tour myself!

This American Heritage Dictionary definition of metamorphosis seems to fit:

A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.”

It’s time to don some logo wear (appearance), put on my best smiling host attitude (character), get a good workout hiking trails and hefting bags (condition), and show and tell our guests all about the wonders of Arizona (function).

Sure warning signs “the change” is coming include:

• Talking to imaginary people. Not out loud, just in my head. Instead of just seeing something for myself, I mentally start telling other people about it, which is a very different way of processing the world.
• Stopping to look at all the plants I pass, to recall what I know about them (and sniffing all the creosote bushes).
• Remembering various tidbits of buried knowledge about people and places.
• Feeling a need to go double check the years certain events occurred.
• Alternating between “yay — I get to go on a trip and meet some cool people“, and “geez, I have so much work to do, how can I afford to leave my desk that long?“

Once I’m in “the season”, then it’s not a big deal. Switching back & forth frequently doesn’t seem like anything, since both roles are still fairly near the surface. But tomorrow is our first trip of the season that I’m personally leading, so the “tour leader” has been dormant for awhile. She’s been awakening the past couple of days, and tomorrow morning she’ll be ready to go!

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We do Sedona tours for women a few times a year, and I frequently lead these myself, since it’s practically my own back yard. The weather looks perfect, and it should be a wonderful weekend!

I set my Mac to announce the time every hour on the hour, and it reminds me of the old town crier (except a lot quieter)!

Actually, that mechanical voice can be a real kick in the pants. It always makes me feel like there’s more he’d like to say…

• “It’s eleven o’clock”… (and you’re still fiddling around with e-mails. Enough already — do something important!)
• “It’s four o’clock”… (and most people’s work day is nearly over. How did that website project suck up the whole afternoon?)
• “It’s ten o’clock”… (OK, so you’ve got a few hours left tonight — what can you do that’s useful?)
• It’s two o’clock… (you’re clearly a bit brain-dead now, but can you still get that blog post out tonight?)

Guess I’d better try!

It’s wonderful to think, but it’s even more wonderful to experience life with all your senses.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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How right he is!

I’m back in the office now. The life of the mind uses a lot of my time when I’m not traveling. It’s incredibly interesting! Whether I’m researching possibilities for new trips, or working on long-range strategy plans, or writing a blog post, or learning new coding techniques for our computer system (yes, I still have some techie left in me!), it’s all quite fascinating. Like the man said, it’s wonderful to think!

But there’s so much more, isn’t there? There’s the part we don’t get in the office, sitting in front of a computer. There’s the part we (or at least most of us in this culture) tend to forget about in the stresses of jobs, family, and all the commitments we have. That’s where travel, vacations, and adventures come in. When you get away from the everyday, all of a sudden, you experience life with so many more senses!

A couple of weeks ago, I was up in Cottonwood, and took these pictures of trees in the winter. I was struck by their beauty, and this quotation fit them so well.

While I was out walking there, I was feeling the chill in the air, hearing the river running nearby, gazing astonished at these incredible trees and the blue, blue sky, and feeling the path and the leaves underfoot. I was using all these senses in a way that doesn’t happen here in the office.

Now that I’m back, looking at the pictures can bring back some of the sensations — the exhilaration of those deep, fresh breaths, or the the nip in the air that made me glad I had a hat. But the pictures couldn’t do that unless I was actually there in the first place.

Oscar Wilde was so right.

We stop in the small town of Cottonwood on our Sedona hiking tours for women. You might even see these exact same trees, but you’d never recognize them covered with green leaves.

I came up to Chicago for the Adventures in Travel Expo here. The expo was smaller than I’d hoped, but my brother Alan lives in the area, which made the trip more enjoyable. Text chat with Alan:

Alan: (Night before the trip) It’s wind chill 20 below here
Me: I don’t think I own enough clothes for that
Alan: (morning I leave) Warming up, should be balmy when you arrive
Me: (taxiing to terminal in Chicago) I see snow. Am I in the wrong place?

One afternoon we took a walk around downtown Naperville, which was a pretty downtown, though I’m sure it looks a lot different in the summer.

Also out that day for a stroll in the snow were a bunch of ducks. What ever happened to migrating south for the winter? Those web feet really don’t look like they’re designed for this!

Like many who travel to Europe and pay for European goods and services, I’ve spent plenty of time the past couple of years bemoaning how the US Dollar has sunk in comparison. Everything in Europe gets more and more expensive. Then on the home front, the cost of gas has risen substantially, so airplane tickets are up, and even driving trips in the US get more expensive! Oh, woe is us…

But compare it to a REALLY bad time, and all of a sudden, it seems like we’re downright fortunate and prosperous.

During the German occupation of Greece (1941 to 1944), the monthly inflation rate peaked at 8.55 billion percent. Prices doubled every 28 hours. By 1944, they were printing 100 trillion drachma notes.

Daily Frappe: Greece hyperinflation - how far we’ve come…

While our Greek Islands yacht trips would certainly be a lot cheaper with their currency in that state, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! We visit this fascinating country twice a year, and I’m happy that they’re doing well. (Though I may continue to moan privately about the exchange rate!)

I’m partway through transitioning from a PC to a Mac. Actually, I still have both, and I don’t ever expect to transition totally, so I’ve moved from PC-land into both-land.

This is not a painless transition. I’ve worked on PC’s so long, that I’m a power user there. I know all the shortcuts, and fly through things on autopilot.

Then came the Mac. At first I loved it! I adored features like the quick, easy editing of pictures in iPhoto. I take a lot of pictures, and this can save serious time compared to doing the same basic editing in Photoshop (which was always overkill for basic cropping and lightening).

Then I became frustrated, as my productivity on normal tasks plummeted. I can’t Alt-I-C anymore to insert a column? Now I have to hunt and click, which takes about 100 times as long. Even on some things I love, the transition itself is a time-sucker. (Like getting all those thousands of photos into the Mac. It’s still not done, after many, many hours.)

I started to see this all in terms of a change slider. It’s like adjusting the left-right balance on your stereo.

Resistance to change <—————||————–> Desire for change

I have these two sides battling it out in my mind over the Mac transition. Some moments the desire side is winning, and the slider shifts right. Then I hit a problem, and the slider moves back to the left.

Each of us has our own default setting. You probably know people who are eager for new experiences, and adapt easily to change:

Resistance to change <————————||—–> Desire for change

And others who are big on stability and routine, and try to avoid change:

Resistance to change <—–||————————> Desire for change

This is just a general tendency. All of us have the same opposing forces that come into play on each change situation we encounter. It’s just that some people have their default setting nearer one end than the other. It’s like they hear better out of one ear, so they keep the stereo adjusted to compensate.

Now there’s the presidential election. From early primary results, it appears that a large number of voters this year want change. What does it take to move so many people at one time towards the Desire for change? One answer is pain. When the pain of stability increases, it creates motivation for change. The more glum economic news there is, and the more of us it affects personally, the more we’ll want change.

(This leads to the thought that stability is not really possible - it’s just an illusion caused by different rates of change. But that’s another topic!)