Today's walk report: 013114

There goes January.

A twelfth of the year shot already. Damn. Lately I've been losing track of time over the course of hours. Today I looked at a clock at 1 PM and just stared at it thinking that can't be possible. So I asked someone... is that clock right?! Yep.

It's not that I'm losing my focus. I'm simply focused on other things. Things which transcend time. I've been losing track of time but neither losing time nor wasting it.

Anyway, today for my walk I ran an errand. A more precisely I had a task to accomplish which took me somewhere. I wrote before that there are errands and there are walks which have a purpose. If I'm over 5 km it's a walk, even if the purpose is really because I have to go somewhere and do something. Today was an errand but it was a special one. I'm not getting into it either so just take my word for it.

As a detour however, I went to two stores trying to find a croakie like the one I already have on my sunglasses. I went to a CVS pharmacy and had to wonder about the placement of various glasses/sunglasses...

I mean, you're shitting me right? You really need to have glasses spread out over 7 different (that I discovered) locations throughout the store?

No croakies. At least I couldn't find any. After that I went to a Big 5 and they did have croakies but not the kind I like. Also, their price was too high. So I wandered home taking an extended route but it still didn't constitute a walk.

I'm not sorry that this is boring, just so you know.

Today's walk report: 013014

On assignment: Trees.

The seed was planted and the seed was trees. I decided only one thing and that was to make it so the trees could be anywhere, without evidence of urban landscape. Why? I don't really know. Maybe so they could be your trees. For the most part you can be in your tree.

Orientation is as shot. It was gray, drizzly... proceeding into sprinkles. Once the sprinkles started the camera went into a plastic bag and I simply walked. 7.39 km total. It was peaceful.

Today's walk report: 012914

The Hunger Walk.

I get distracted at times and forget to eat. Today I was on a phone call and about 1:30 PM realized I hadn't eaten. I had to think about it though. Pause... rewind... nope, not even a cracker. Okay I'll eat after the phone call which ended shortly post my realization.

Then there was watering and some
cleanup of stage one carpet removal in the master bedroom (a major mess--that's the padding under the carpet, dried up and turned to dust), some other minor tasks and then guess what? I was out the door with my iPod blaring Led Zeppelin, just trucking right along. 1 km into the walk I realized again--you haven't eaten today, you're not going to do well on this walk or are you?

I didn't bring a camera and simply decided to hustle through the thing and if I got woozy I could always turn around. I mean shit, what about what went on yesterday? As it turned out I felt great and went the usual 8.79 km. Maybe I was riding some sort of deprivation high but I was A.O.K. Sure once I got home I went into slow motion, slow decision making mode but I eventually got myself in/out of the shower, whipped up a tuna sandwich, ate that like you might expect a hungry man to eat with no one watching and stabilized once more.

Ta-da! Protein... fish... brain food!

Aside from the carpet removal, I do have one picture to share but I'm not every excited about it. It looked a lot more interesting in person so I'm a bit disappointed in the outcome.

This is Virginia Stock (Malcolmia maritima) an errant seed that found its way into a crack in the asphalt driveway a few meters away from all its Virginia Stock companions. I will be careful not to drive over it. Flower power. Right on!

Today's walk report: 012814

Color lights can hypnotize...

There were some mysterious visual disturbances today for about 1 km 1/2 way or so into the walk. It's hard to describe stuff like this but the sunlight seemed overly bright and rather strobe-like, almost a flickering, along with a little bending. I was wearing sunglasses, the same ones I always wear. I thought at 1st it was perspiration pooling up on the rims of the glasses and light refracting off of that--but it wasn't. Stuff like this happens and if you freak out it only exasperates the situation and naturally there's a certain amount of confusion combined with questioning, you just have to keep it in check. I seemed fine otherwise. I've experienced hallucinations, visual disturbances like this in my life so I could understand it. I also know what it's like to pass out, I wasn't going there. I took an inventory and decided I was okay. Still.. strange. It went away. I actually sped up during the process, not wanting to conk out where I was. Funny though, about midway through the episode Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused from the album How the West Was Won started playing. That's not the 1st track on the album but it was 1st to come up--appropriately timed on my iPod. It's a 25:25 blowout version too. Funny, 25... for you Zep fans,you'll get the "25" connection.

Moving along...

Photos, more of the same sort of game plan as yesterday. In part this is due to the ease of going out with just a 60 mm macro lens and not bothering with the weight and overall encumbrance of a long lens and other accouterments. I enjoy shooting with this lens and it went over well yesterday. It also makes me focus on defining my subject, it's more cerebral in that way.

Once again starting with the red cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) outside the front door and now fully open.

Purple alyssum, off the driveway.

Another "inside rose." I really like the contours of the petals and we don't usually get this close unless to lean in for a smell and then we close our eyes don't we? It's certainly not in this sort of focus anyway.

No ID. I shot this flower last year too.

This is in abundance in large planters on campus. No ID. Again, I shot it for shape.

Tagetes lemmonii, aka, Copper Canyon daisy.

This is rotated 90º counterclockwise, I like it better this way. I shot it like this. The curator of the garden told me what this was, it just went in a few days back but I've forgotten. These are tiny flowers.

Delosperma ice plant, I kid you not, it's that brightly pink.

Bee on some type of Grevillea.

About 2 km past my little episode, this EMT is waiting for me atop the hill. I only waved. This guy comes up here frequently around sunset.

So ends my little drama and hopefully nice pictures for you. I'm having a delicious salmon dinner right now and I shared a bit with Lucy T. Cat. I think part if not most of my issue today was being tired and also I went to bed and woke up this morning with an eyestrain headache. Maybe it was the clam chowder I had for lunch. So enough of this, I'm going to relax now. All in all, the 8.79 km walk was great. I skipped the optional sunset once again because of the circumstances but I'm fine now there was just 6-7 minutes there where I was visiting don Juan Matus.

Today's walk report: 012714

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
~Robert Brault~

That was the basic theme of my day, aside from some ackward and rather heavy lifting around the house trying to create order without simply chucking stuff in the trash.

I spent a good deal of time outside and while I don't seem to have much of a garden in the wide shot I'm finding all sorts of things to marvel at up close. Today I made myself tiny. I became my camera and entered a microcosm inside my front yard.

This continued into my walk. Mostly pictures, not a lot of ID'ing stuff either because for many I just don't know.

Right outside the front door...

A few more meters, I'm on the sidewalk now. African daisies, Dimorphotheca sinuata or Dimorphotheca aurantiaca.

Baby Snapdragon (Linaria maroccana), right next to the daisies.

Oleander about a block into the walk.

From a distance you may have thought this rose was old and tired. Come in close, it's alive.

A tiny flower on some hedges.

Ever make a wish on a dandelion?

The dried up spent fruit of the sweetgum tree. Last February I rolled my left foot on one of these and went for a tumble, fortunately sans camera.

No ID.

No ID #2.

This is a fruit tree on campus. I don't recall actually seeing the fruit though. Maybe a plum?

Yesterday I mentioned the scarlet bugler (Penstemon centranthifolius) was blooming, here's a photo.

I also mentioned another hummingbird favorite, Grevillea olivacea.

This young egret is a contrast to the little things above but is quite diminutive compared to the egret I usually saw back in October-December, seen here and here and in other posts too. Perhaps an offspring?

Australian Native Wattle Tree.

No ID #3 or is it 4?

Some sage. Maybe a variety of Salvia clevelandii. I don't know, mine all died.

The 1st image here was ID'd last year as Aloe striata "Coral Aloe." I'll double check the other one another day. I don't believe they're the same.

That's a lot of pictures, my eyes are tired. Goodnight.