Biographical Dates
                                                                    Jonathan Willis Jarvis

My Uncertain Birthday
Uncertainties about my existence started with my birthday.  During my childhood years my birthday was always celebrated on the 11th of October, which also happens to be my father's birthday.  My mother always said my birth happened on 11 October, 1942, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, Los Angeles, California, at 12:23 am local  time.  However when I applied for my first passport at age 18 and saw my birth certificate for the first time, it reported a different date of 10 October, 11:23 pm.  In response to my confusion, my mother explained that the hospital registrar "did not believe in war time".  She said that after a long delay of two years, due to World War II, she finally amended the birth certificate by attaching a second page called an Affidavit for Correction, witnessed by my grandmother Daisy who was also present at my birth.  Unfortunately, their wording on the affidavit confused  the terms "war time" and "standard time".   However in support of the essential claim of the affidavit that my birth happened after midnight in the first hour of 11 October, my mother told me that my birth was prolonged and that she remembered looking at the clock on the wall.  She also affirmed that my grandmother Daisy would not have witnessed to an event that was not true.

On a visit to California many years later, I looked into the microfiche archives of the Los Angeles Times for the day of my birth.  In the Sun and Tides section of the newspaper, the hour of sunrise in the year 1942 was the same as the hour of sunrise according to Pacific Daylight Saving Time in our current era. Therefore the references to "local time", "war time" and "standard time" in my birth certificate and the Affidavit for Correction manifest the same confusion about Daylight Saving Time still common today (spring forward, fall backward).  This topic might not seem worth so many words except for introducing the theme of doubt about identity which has always concerned me.

For the record, the United States established  Daylight Saving Time in the Standard Time Act of 1918 but repealed it the following year.  Then it was reinstated during World War II from Feb 1942 to Sept 1945.  Finally it was standardized nationwide in 1966.  The Social Security Administration  reviewed my birth certificate regarding my application for benefits when my age reached 62.   Apparently after reading only page 1 and ignoring page 2, the Affidavit for Correction,  they determined my birthday to be October 10.  However they eventually settled on October 11.

Some personal history dates and links

1942, 11 October, 12:23 am, Los Angeles, California, birth of Jonathan Willis Jarvis, first child of John J. Jarvis and Ellyn Louise Hennings Jarvis.

1950's -  Childhood on the ranch north of Fort Worth, mulberry treehouse, Oz books, Jasper dog and Miss horse, isolation and open fields.

Age 10 or 11:  Remember counting telephone posts wearing new pink plastic rim eyeglasses.

7th grade  Stripling Junior High, moved into town to 1719 Thomas Place, Arlington Heights, Fort Worth, my own bedroom on second floor, large bed with headboard, solid desk, maple dresser with clicking metal rungs, violin stand, recessed closet under eaves.

9th grade, about age 14, 1956:  Wondered why dinosaurs were not mentioned in the Bible.  One afternoon after school, while in my bedroom reading Living Biographies of Great Philosophers (Henry Thomas, 1941),  in the chapter about the "gentle pantheism of Spinoza", this thought came up: Would God be angry with me if I provisionally stopped believing in Him?  Suddenly I noticed that my belief was gone.  I set the book down and walked out of the house light-headed not understanding my great loss.

1960  Graduated from Arlington Heights High School AHHS, Fort Worth, Texas, near top of class.  Summer school in Mexico City College studying Spanish. Enrolled in Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.
Spring 1961  Second semester lonely depression, no special friend or teacher, smoked cigarettes alone in dorm room, dropped out and took the train home.
62-63  Drifted around, some classes TCU, girlfriend Tammy, visited Puerto Rico and New York City.
5/10/64  Honda Superhawk Motorcyle accident age 21, compound fractures both legs and internal injuries.
65-66  Modest insurance settlement, travel in France, Middle East, Bombay,  exploring altered states of consciousness smoking hashish, returned from Juhu Beach with an Anglo-Indian friend Trevor Bennett to Paris, split up at Gare de Lyon Station after his visa to England was denied and my leg surgery was healed. Four years later Trevor came to my address in NYC on shore leave on a day when I was out of town.   A year later his last letter said he had gotten into England by marriage but was not happy.
66-67 Office job in ad agency in New York City, then return to Paris, Bombay,  Madras, Ceylon, Singapore, Bangkok, Honolulu and back to Fort Worth.
3/68 Visited first cousin Brother Paul at Trappist Abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, California.
5/68-12/68  Elevator operator at six-storied Sanger's Nursing Home, 500 W 54th St, NYC.
7/69-2/72 Full time volunteer worker at Integral Yoga Institute IYI, 500 West End Ave, NYC, taping and transcribing lectures by Swami Satchidananda, who gave me a mantra and the name Janardhana. 
3/72-1/73  Dining room porter at Mirrer Yeshiva Elementary School, Brooklyn, wearing yamaka serving soup to students at lunch.
6/73-5/76 University of Texas at Arlington UTA, B.S.E.E  Magna Cum Laude
Summer 76  Grad student Texas A & M, foolishly turned down Stanford scholarship afraid of debt.
76-78  Integrated circuit design engineer,  Raytheon Semiconductor (now Fairchild), Mountain View, Ca.
78-79  Grad student UC Berkeley
79-80  Integrated circuit design, Hewlett Packard Optoelectronics, Palo Alto, Ca, some grad courses at Stanford in semiconductor design
9/80-11/80  Hiked 400 miles northbound on PCT from Donner Pass to summit of Mt. Shasta.
80-81  Electric motor design at Tecnetics in Boulder, Colorado
12/81-8/89  Hughes Aircraft, Tucson Arizona, electrical engineer writing software for testing and physical layout design of missile guidance hybrid circuits.   Midvale Village condo.
6/10/85 Appointed guardian of Jose Castillo born 4/22/73.  Accompanied José back to Sturgis, Michigan approx 1988.
90 Apartment in Austin, Texas, self-learning to program a personal computer in Borland C.  Hiked southbound on PCT from Donner Pass to summit of Mt. Whitney, cured chronic headache from dental trauma.
90-91 Programmer at University of Utah, Dept of Genetics, relative ordering of human chromosome markers.  In free time developed Traveling Salesman Problem heuristics for PC,  (TOUR $40 shareware, source code has been lost).

92-3/22/93  Argonne National Lab , Sequencing-by-Hybridization SBH software for the human genome project

1993
4-8:  solo hike PCT Mexico to Oregon, cured ulcers and lost 60 lbs from 210 to 150
9-10:  Norcross, Georgia, Jeff's house
11:   Winter sesshin, Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico
12/93-4/94:  Tarahumara Indians, La Mesa de Yerbabuena near Batopilas, Chihuahua state, Mexico

1994
5-8: Thru hiked entire Pacific Crest Trail Mexico to Canada in 4-1/2 months, weight 145
10-12:  Batopilas, second visit
1/95-4/95:  Arrived Lukeville, Arizona, first winter season in the Sonoran desert

1995
5-7:  Luna,  New Mexico, alligator juniper forest
7-9:  Flagstaff, Arizona camping on slopes of Mt. Elden
10:   Concussion and temporary amnesia in Bacuseachi, Chihuahua among the Tarahumaras, third visit
11:  Thanksgiving at Janie's in Yorba Linda, California.
12/95-2/96:  Lukeville, 2nd winter season.

1996
3-4:  Bacuseachi - Lukeville - Bacuseachi shuttle.
05:  Wat Metta Monastery near Escondido, Ca; on 5/17 in a formal ceremony in the Pali language, from Ven. Thanissaro I took the Eight Theravada Buddhist vows against violence, theft, unchastity, untruthful speech, intoxicants, eating after midday, worldly entertainments and soft beds.
6-7:  North Rim Grand Canyon in Kaibab Forest
08:   Flagstaff
09:   Luna, New Mexico in alligator juniper forest
10:   Caborca, Sonora, rented empty room
10-11:  Lukeville.
12:   Bacuseachi, 5th visit
12/96-4/97:  Lukeville, 3rd winter season.

1997
04:  San Diego.
5-6:  La Cueva fork above Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
07:   Cloudcroft, New Mexico, lighting storms.
08:   Parral, Chihuahua, Hotel Internacional.
09:   Fort Worth visited parents in Hulen.
10/97-2/98:  Lukeville, 4th winter season.

1998
03:  Flagstaff.
4-6:   La Mesa de Yerbabuena, 6th visit among Tarahumaras, great fire wall-to-rim.
07:  Mt. Shasta, California.
08:  Lima, Montana, sagebrush camp.
09:  Flagstaff.
10:  Lukeville.
11-12:  Fort Worth, mother's breast cancer.

1999
1/99-?  Tepic Mexico, Lukeville 5th winter season.
3-9:  Thru-hiked Continental Divide Trail Mexico to Canada, 7 million steps in 6 months, averaging 20 mpd.
10: Visited Basaseachi, Mexico, en route to winter camp at Lukeville.

2000
1-3: Lukeville, 6th winter season.
04:  Fort worth, her cancer spread.
Summer 2000  Grants hike to Silver City, then bus to Vancouver BC, Idaho crest hike, right knee cyst, Seattle UW.
8-10/15:  San Gerardo de Rivas, San Jose province, Costa Rica, 4 ahijado godsons of secondary education.
11-12/00  Lukeville 7th season,  Christmas in Fort Worth.

2001
01:  San Gerardo de Rivas, godsons starting seventh grade.
2/25: Death of my cousin Brother Paul Bernard at New Clairvaux Abbey in California at age 70 from pancreatic cancer.
7/19:   Mother's death in coma after cracking ribs, tripped over oxygen cord, lungs damaged by smoking early in life.
8/28:   Return to Costa Rica and farewell to godsons, 12 days by land to Arizona, witnessed 911 in Creel,  Mexico.
Winter 01-02 Lukeville 8th winter season in Sonoran desert

2002
3-8:  Apartment in Mineral Wells, Texas,  Gateway 500S 1.8 ghz  Pentium IV computer, 22-day fast.
8/19:   Death of Sri Swami Satchidananda in South India age 87.
9/10:  Donated gateway 500S calypso computer to Liceo Canaan in Costa Rica and visited godsons growing up.
9/24:  Lukeville 9th season, frequently hiking border to Ajo.  Onset of osteoarthritis in December diagnosed by xrays.

2003
2/22:  Greyhound bus to Mineral Wells, Texas. Contact with former foster son Jose Castillo restored temporarily.
3/11:  Miami International Airport - San Jose, Costa Rica, after Galveston visit with Dad, Janie, Jim and Julie.
6/6:  In David, Panama, to renew 3-month Costa Rican tourist visa.
6/18:  Purchased a strip of a coffee farm along 200 meters of the south bank of Rio Chirripo.  I named it Jardin Botanico Andarivel, later renamed it Arboleda Andarivel. New ahijados Jesus 'Chapulin' Esteban Brenes Delgado (age 11) and Juan Antonio Brenes Delgado (age 6+).
08:  Increasing arthritic pain prevents long walks to visit godson Carlos who never comes to visit. Without prospects of personal contact with him regretfully retired from sponsorship although a promising student.  Contact with former foster son Jose Castillo lost again. Greddy Chinchilla obtained high school equivalency diploma.  Morning tutoring of Jesus and Juan moved from the upper Escuela Ramada down to the Andarivel pavilion below the jinote tree.
09:  In David, Panama, to renew Costa Rican visa. 
12:  Signed a last will and testament naming sister Janie as estate executor in the US.
12:  In David, Panama again.  Submitted written offer to buy the coffee fincas above the Andarivel river bottom, planning over time to uproot coffee stumps and reforest with timber and fruit trees. See neighboring cloudbridge.org.  Pain from hip osteoarthritis less but knobby bunions above big toes increased.

2004
1/17:  Godson Cristhian failed both makeup exams to complete ninth grade.  Family moved to a small house in El Posito, San Isidro, before starting new school year 9 Feb.  Kenneth and Elizabeth registered in Colegio Sinai and Juan and Jesus in Escuela Sinai, both large public schools.  At Jardin Andarivel constructing trails, a tank for a fish pond and fences.  Planning about 300 trees such as jaul (alder), cedro (cedar), hitabo (yucca), poro (coral tree), guachipelin, madero negro, jocote (wild plum), tirra (Mexican elm), guanacaste, almendro (almond) and roble (oak), and down by the river fruit trees such as rose apple, banana, platano, mango, lemon, lime, orange, tangerine and avocado.
2/10:  Closed purchase on remainder of Jardin Andarivel now about two acres in area (7,559 m2).
2/18:  Witnessed and notarized new will in San Isidro in Spanish, seven legal pages with all numbers expressed as words per Costa Rican legal protocol.  US will executor sister Janie, substitute Gerald, and Costa Rican albaceas Ulises Arias or Iris Romero.  Continuing heavy labor excavating road drainage ditch with pick and shovel and building a level road shoulder and flower bed against the Andarivel house, emptied of inhabitants, electricity and water, used instead as a workshop and storeroom.  Black curly-haired Pinky keeps me company days and sometimes nights by the river curled at my feet .
3/25:  Notarized yet another will with new lawyer Roberto Portilla Barrantes with some minor changes and improved appearance.  Deed to Jardin Botanico Andarivel fully registered.  Orthopedist aspirated cyst behind right knee,  repeating same procedure done four years ago but without much effect.  Teaching godson Fabian to play chess on occasional walks to the town store of his grandfather Ulises.
04:  Notarized another Costa Rican will with Roberto Portilla with bequests from the sale of andarivel and other funds going to 10 godsons and working mothers.  Saturday morning tutoring godson Daniel and goddaughter Yariela while little sister Angelica tags along.
05:  Completed stone flower bed and massive entrance ramp and cypress portal, starting 160 meter, 80 concrete post fence line fronting the public road.  Undiagnosed stiffness in fingers assumed to be arthritis.  Pinky dog shows up for meals.
6/11:  Notarized will modifying fund for working mothers and revising beneficiaries upon sale of Andarivel.
7/26/2004 Farewell to Andarivel in care of Manuel Fonseca. Uchimaguchi (formerly 'Pinky')  followed me to the bus.  Last projects completed with Manuel: planted 31 stakes of madero negro along public road, 20 guachipelín and 12 jocote; poured concrete to strengthen corner of bodega, hung great visitor bell at main gate portal; completed three western gates.  Left five main structures: bodega storehouse with five rooms; mandarino pavilion with bed;  sala with long desk board, construction tools and visitor chairs; private riverside camp; and riverside kitchen with 10-foot custom home-built table.
08:  To Mexico City by air,  Flagstaff by bus, Seattle, Everett, Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Vancouver BC,  Issaquah.
9/04-11/9/04 Mineral Wells with Gerald and intensive internet access.
9/11:  Enrolled in an English teacher training program planning to teach English as a foreign language in Thailand or India.  Ordered Pimsleur Hindi introductory course on cassette.
9/19:  Withdrew from ICAN English teaching program.  Playing over lots of grandmaster chess games online.
10/11:  Birthday in Galveston shared with Dad 87 and nephew Jonathan Jarvis Ogan 19 (all same day 10/11). Hindi language order canceled out of stock.  Studying Thai tapes instead but not very much.  Reading about Ramana Maharshi and his guru, the mountain Arunachala.
10/22:  My siblings could not agree on a common spokesman regarding a certain business offer.
10/23:  Short six-day fruit juice fast to combat wooden stiffness in fingers, arms and legs. No improvement..
11/9:  14 hours flight via Korean Air  from DFW to Incheon International Airport, Korea, followed by 6 hour flight to Bangkok.  Missed airport pickup but finally got to Woodlands Inn Hotel early morning.   See Thailand-1, India, Thailand-2 travel notes.
12/4:  Bangkok to Delhi via Air India. Stayed a week or more in Rishikesh, Dharamsala (Green Hotel on Bhagsu Road), and Bodh Gaya.

2005
2/16:  Bodh Gaya to Bangkok, Thailand,  via Indian Airlines. Ayutthaya, Surat Thani (Seelee Hotel Rm. 328),
Koh Samui island, Suan Mokkh Retreat (2 days only), back to refuge of Seelee Hotel.  Renewed The Eight Precepts.
3/15:  China Airlines Bangkok-Taipei-LAX.  Then American Airlines to DFW where Gerald picked me up..
4/18-4/23 Visited Dad and Julie in Galveston with Jim.
5/3:  Greyhound bus Mineral Wells to Flagstaff.  Lowell Observatory Mesa: mostly ponderosa pine.  Mt. Elden: more variety of terrain, flora (ponderosa, alligator juniper, oak, cliff rose, linaria dalmatica) and fauna (deer, coyote, coral snake, bees harvesting flowers).
8/4:  Flight from Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica. 
11/4:  3 days in David, Panama,  to renew Costa Rican visa.
12: Continuing to plant trees in my Andarivel garden.  Recent additions: 20 bananas, 6 limes, 1 yellow lemon, 6 grapefruit, 2 cork eucalyptus, 6 rainbow deglupta eucalyptus, 4 plateado eucalyptus.  Godson Fabian matriculated in private school Escuela Cientifica, San Isidro, for starting fourth grade in February, 2006.

2006
2/5:  In David, Panama, to renew visa
03: Transferred deed of Andarivel to Jesus and Juan Brenes Delgado, retaining all usufruct rights to protect their inheritance for when they both reach legal age (22 November, 2014).
08:  Boerne, Texas (near San Antonio) and Houston,  to visit family and authenticate documents for Costa Rica residency.  Returned with a 15" TV monitor and Playstation 2 for godson visits to Andarivel.
11:  New domain andarivel.org
12:  Experimented renting an apartment in San Isidro for internet access and a place for Jesus to study near his house.

2007
01: Second trip to Boerne for CR visa application.
03: Trip to San Jose and Quepos with Jesus.
09:  Farewell Andarivel via Panama, several weeks in David at Pension Fanita.
10:  Panama City - Atlanta - Phoenix.  Bused to Flagstaff before 65th birthday just in time to apply for Social Security Medicare Insurance.  Camped behind Mt. Elden on National Forest lands.
11:  Flagstaff - Las Vegas - San Diego - Seattle - Reno odyssey.
12:  - 1/9/08 Studio apartment in Reno near the University of Nevada.  Bought a Gateway MT6723 laptop.

2008
01:  Albuquerque, Route 66 Hostel.
02:  Ajo,  "Welcome to Medicare" physical.  Stored laptop with sister Jane.  Flight to Bangkok for successful colonoscopy at Bumrungrad International Hospital.  Three week retreat at Boonkanjanaram Meditation Center, Jomtien Beach near Pattaya. 
03:  Return to Phoenix, then next day on to San Jose to check on Andarivel and godson school enrollments.  Mailed two One Laptop Per Child XO computers and brought one more on the plane,  plus three Asus EE laptops as gifts.   None of them turned out to be very useful.
06:  Abandoned hope for residency application still in limbo after two years.  Diagnosis of androgen deficiency (ADAM syndrome) explains fatigue of past year,  was confirmed by an injection.  Panama, Boquete and David one month.  Father's Day letter to Dad from Boquete about wisdom is seeing the impermanence of this world.
07:  Final touchups to Andarivel.  Excursion to San Jose and Heredia with Jesus, Juan and Daniel, farewell at Musoc bus station.  Offered each of them a full scholarship to attend private school Del Valle in San Isidro but their mothers declined.
7/24/08 San Jose - Albuquerque.  Bus to Flagstaff.  Arrowhead Lodge room with wireless internet and path up to The Mesa. 
09:  New domain www.jwleaf.org
11: Diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy tingling in feet and hands.
11/22 Arrival in Alpine, Texas, stayed 10 days at Motel Bien Venido.
12/1/08 Rented an unfurnished apartment with very good 4.7 Mbps internet access.  Bought a second laptop computer, an HP Pavilion DV5.

2009
05: Diagnosis of cataracts forming in both eyes.  Sent my Gateway MT6723 laptop to Juan.  Closed all Costa Rican bank accounts by transferring the balances to the mothers of my godsons (Jesus, Juan, Daniel, Fabian, Joseph, Jean Carlo) because updating death beneficiaries there would require a personal journey to Costa Rica.  
06: Ordered a desktop computer (HP Pavilion Elite M9510F) more tolerant of summer heat than the HP laptop which will become the backup computer.
08: Onset of daily headaches in left temple for undiagnosed reasons, gradually tapering off but lasting into 2010.
09-10: Visited father in Boerne, Texas, for one month.
12: Sporadic contact with Costa Rican godsons has faded into the background.

2010
02: Visited Chihuahua City via the Presidio border crossing for lab tests, chest xrays and a coronary treadmill stress test.  Depression of the ST-segment at nodes V5 & V6 indicates ischemia (coronary artery disease).  
03: Moderate to severe calcium plaque deposits were detected in the LAD vessel (left anterior descending) by a CTA scan (Toshiba Aquilion 64) and a nuclear stress test at the Cardiology Clinic of San Antonio.  Philip Zinn, cardiologist, determined that no surgical intervention is required this year. Prescribed Rosuvastatin 10mg to lower LDL and instant release Niacin 2,000 mg to raise HDL, the "good" lipoprotein which cleans cholesterol from artery walls.   Father's physical and mental condition at age 92 deteriorated significantly due to the trauma of his hip replacement in February and gall bladder removal by laparoscopy in March.   His excessive corpulence defeated any attempt to sit, stand up or walk.  Anesthetic from the operations caused onset of dimentia.
05/01 Left Alpine to hike from New Mexico to Flagstaff, Arizona.  Revisited old camp behind Mt. Elden.
05/19/2010  Death of my father in a San Antonio hospital: obituary here.  Mother's obituary 7/19/2001 here.
06/21 Returned to Alpine from Flagstaff by bus and Amtrak to close apartment and move to Washington state.
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