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Eric Phelps

@ericphelps@mastodon.social

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

Worked in USA, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Nicaragua, UAE, Morocco, Iraq, Nigeria, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, India -- and all of them full of good people. Still working, now back in the USA.

Weekends are usually biking, kayaking, or hiking. It's "urban hiking" in the hidden areas everyone else drives past.

I follow #hiking and #kayaking, so even if it looks like I'm not following you... I'm following you ;)

I usually post a couple times a week.

464 Followers

239 Following

34 Posts

Joined April 26, 2020

Web:

http://ericphelps.com/

Relive videos:

https://www.relive.cc/profile/ericphelps

Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 1mo ago

#Walmart self-checkout. I watched someone empty their cart onto the shelf, scan each item, place it on the opposite shelf, then reload their cart. Like the normal checkout lane, but *much* slower. I place everything in my cart UPC facing up. I scan everything in the cart with the "gun", never moving the items. Done in 15 seconds. So why are so many people doing it the slow way? Other stores weigh each item after you scan it, forcing you to do it the slow way. But not Walmart. I just realized.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

I'm back! After the last two weeks of being destroyed by the heat in only 4 miles, today I did 12 miles with a sustained peak of 102⁰F (39⁰C). Things have apparently changed from last year because my water consumption has doubled and my speed… Well, that's difficult to measure. I had breaks to repair broken microspikes and to divert for water refills. I'm slower for sure, but, you know, I'm still out there having fun! #hiking

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Too darned hot! I planned an 8.5 mile hike, but by 4 miles I was completely wasted. Then I looked where I was and found I was two miles from anywhere I could bail out. So it was a 6 mile walk. You'll never know your limit if you don't try. https://www.relive.com/view/vr63znXZy8O #hiking

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Feeling pretty conservative about my knee, so went hiking with a buddy who recently had hip replacement surgery. Just 3 miles, which suits us both perfectly. And both of us feel more comfortable not being solo.

Por ahora.
#hiking

mastodon.social

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

In Montreal Canada for a week of work training Senegalese airport weather observers on their new weather system.

The picture is flying over the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I checked, and yes, you can see that color line on the satellite maps. I just thought it was a "map tiling problem", but no, it's real.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

I wanted sooo much to go for a hike today, but was woken up at 5AM to fix a weather system on the other side of the world. And then my wife reminded me my month of working on sprinklers wasn't done yet. But I managed to get a small 4 mile walk in. A walk, not a hike. Because I didn't wear a backpack 😉.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

8 mile walk in the rain because it's going to be worse tomorrow. I have an umbrella and a rain jacket, I didn't walk in any puddles, and I didn't slip in any mud, so it's all good.

Relive movie is for a photographer friend of mine who visited the trail 2 days ago and said there were no flowers. I think he's looking for the "big expanse" shot, while I'm the kind of guy who smiles at the pieces of glitter still in the carpet from the party two years ago.
https://www.relive.com/view/vwq1zxx2QBv
#hiking

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

My knee is making an *incredible* recovery, but I'm giving it an easy day. Took the bike out for a quick 21 mile ride on a PERFECT day.

Snakes are out more this year than in the last ten years, but so far they're all pretty mellow.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Well, it was a bit longer than I thought. What with the knee problem, I thought I might be able to do 6 miles. So I picked out a nice route and "thumbed" it on the map. Looks fine. By mile six I realized I'd made a big mistake about the length. But then I thought of @dieLeo@loops.video who does this kind of stuff in a *walker*. Yah, I can do this. Almost 9 miles.

And it really was a beautiful day!

The relive movie link is to convince a friend to come with me next weekend.

https://www.relive.com/view/vdvmkr9rVx6
#hiking

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@derickr@phpc.social @ojensen@hachyderm.io @briankrebs@infosec.exchange Password managers! They can hold unique email addresses as well as the expected passwords and user names. Every account should have all three of those unique. Gmail, firefox, duck, and pretty much all commercial email providers let you generate more email addresses than you'll ever need. Having hundreds of active email addresses is a normal thing. I tell myself that 😏.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@madcollector Oh, I can't help myself. Just in case you didn't know how we used to harvest spaghetti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU

BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino | Switzerland Tourism

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JKrotkov@mastodon.social I had some Iraqi Meteorologists we were training a few years back and I took them out on a bit of a walk through the capitol park in Sacramento. We just headed across the lawn and the bunch of us walked into the Capitol Building and up to the (closed) governor's door. They were astounded. Ha ha ha, I secretly thought. Try that in your country! I wonder if I can still do that in my country.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@futzle@old.mermaid.town Hearing "thrice" reminds me of the "The board is green thrice" pre-flight checklist from the Trader's Tales book series. https://nathanlowell.com/catalog/bookslist/ If you secretly want to convince someone to diversify their skillset and to stand up for the people around them, you give them this series.

nathanlowell.com

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@TimKStanton Folsom, in the very beginning of the foothills just east of Sacramento California.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@jik@federate.social Nice thread. Big fan of trees, so #10 was my favorite. Looking forward to more… if the mood strikes you again!

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@donray@mastodon.online Well, it's an e-bike, so I'd have to really try hard to hurt my knee. Grrrr, I have two other "real" bikes. I should just get them out.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@donray@mastodon.online Well, that was the plan! But I got frustrated with the 45 minutes it takes me to assemble, disassemble, and stow the bike transport cart. That plus all the parts are suddenly missing 😠. So I want to design a new cart that's permanently attached to the kayak and just folds up out of the way. My last design took a year of thinking and prototyping. I may miss this entire season.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@rbos@mastodon.novylen.net I pre-generated a thousand email addresses, registered them with my email provider, and loaded them into my password manager. They're ready to go for new accounts with a simple rename. The whole "tagging" thing with Gmail is one of those theoretical things I know about but have never done.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jhaworth@mindly.social Floating through the air, building up in drifts along the side of the trail… That's the kind of snow I like.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@jaykass After about 10 years of not seeing any, now I've seen 2 in the last 10 days. Definitely giving me second thoughts about off-trail hiking.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@CA_Hawthorne "Chocolate Holiday". Now I'm extrapolating from fireworks sales restrictions to only around the Fourth – because we're all too irresponsible to have access to them year-round – to imagining chocolate sales restrictions to only around certain holidays – for the same damned reason.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@NuanceRhymesWithOrange@mstdn.social I was told it's "Who cooks for you?" Which, while not being a good match for the sound, is more fun to remember.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@CA_Hawthorne I missed a favorite. There's one open field almost nobody knows about. Early in the spring, it's covered in flowers. Then the flowers drop and the grass grows up. By the time my knee was good enough to not use a cane, the grass was already a foot high. And my annual 30-mile day hike along the river. So many flowers. Still not up to that. Looking forward to next spring already.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@KolokokoBird@social.chinwag.org I tried that: Adding oil to an entire shirt to hide an oil spot. It worked, but the shirt was a lot heavier. And it's remarkably hard to get oil to cover a garment uniformly. After that adventure, I just got fabric paint and added cartoon characters or flowers to cover up any stains.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@jimbob Awww, you're getting the good stuff. I keep seeing hair extensions and spandex clothing. I guess I should be grateful that they completely suck at profiling me.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@pkufeldt A bit cuter than your typical rat.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Someone put a sticker on a gas pump at my local gas station. It's funny.
The $6.55 per gallon isn't as funny.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@bigz And you probably didn't want to do a roll to cool off. How *did* you cool off?

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@bigz Now I don't feel bad about missing that.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@peteorrall I use a Zepp (Amazfit) watch and am quite happy with it. It has all the features you don't want, but it also has nice GPS, good battery life, and great price. It'll go two weeks if you don't use the GPS, and my 5-hour day hikes only use about 20% of the watch battery. I run the Zepp app on my phone to download the GPX after a hike, then do whatever I want with the GPX. https://www.amazfit.com/

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@bigz It really is an amazing place.

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@pkufeldt Chest high. Yikes. Hard to protect against that!

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@bigz Nice place there. I got a lot of pretty sunset photos over the water. And you know all the tourist stuff. Have fun!

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Eric Phelps @ericphelps@mastodon.social

· 15mo ago

Replying to

@jessewagstaff@mastodon.social And some three-headed abomination out of a nightmare sneaking up from behind you on the trail. Criminy, that is one twisted tree.

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