After three days of moving my daily constitutional indoors and on the recumbent bike, last night I told myself to make an effort to walk, get out the door by 7:00 AM and beat the heat. I was in the car at 7:03, drove 1/2 mile, and started my walk at 7:07. That's 43 minutes ahead of last week's walk. It was 71º F with relative humidity at 72%. I walked two miles and was out roaming around for 50-something minutes before I was back in my air-conditioned vehicle. It was then about 75º with a RH of 65%. I'm a total lightweight with the weather these days; I was dripping with perspiration. Unlike last week, this time I was wearing a 100% cotton, raglan baseball t-shirt. It was soaked about 1/3 of the way down by the time I got home. Clearly, my Scandinavian roots are getting the better of me in SoCal, Valley weather.
I took only a few photos; all the shrubbery is browning, and flowers are virtually nonexistent. Also, a lot of shrubbery looked seriously neglected on the watering front. So much so that I wondered if the campus powers that be levied a restriction mandate on the curators for the local college campus botanical garden. I’ve been going to this garden since 2010. I’ve never seen it look so bad.
In cooler climes, I'm more inclined to find spots to wait out a photo op or two; today was another, “keep it moving and get this over with” kind of day. Here are a few shots I managed to get off along the way. Lighting was also, once again, less than desirable. I saw several hummingbirds but they were mostly chasing each other, vying for territory.
Saturday, July 25
Another fabulous, guess the bird by the feather contest, where you can win a wonderful no-prize to be delivered at no-time and at no-place if you can correctly determine what bird dropped this feather. And remember, please, no-wagering. I ticked off that little ant in the first image by turning it over. How many of you out there remember your parents telling you not to pick up feathers because you'd get lice? A show of hands would be fine.
Last week I mentioned orioles and look at this. I was barely able to get a shot off before he took off. This is a hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus).
And did you look closely? Yep, he's the early bird that caught a worm.
Eucalyptus lunata 'Moon-Lagoon,' hummingbirds don't seem interested, only bees. I didn't see a lot of bees today either.
Even the Brachychiton acerifolius, flame bottletree, is flaming out.
Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).
Female Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin).
A young mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). I'm seeing lots of young mockingbirds.
That's it! I walked a large loop around campus central, kept an eye out but nada más.
So far on the indoor cycling, I have been slowly increasing my mileage on the Spirit XBR25 recumbent bike. Yesterday, I was up 36% from day one. Basically, I set the resistance between 6 and 7 and go. Hard to explain, but I'm literally hardwired for high-cadence time trials. Yeah, I'm old, but I'm pretty hardcore. No coasting, no taking it easy, just flat-out pace from the second I get on. That's how I walk too. On the bike: Estimated Cadence approximately 16.74 mph times 5, approximately 83 to 85 RPM. I'm going to work on that math a little bit. The bike doesn't have a readout for RPMs. It hurts my head... math.
Meanwhile, yesterday, I found this photo from November of 2009, back when I was out racing the RB-1 in my Windsor Square, Hancock Park 'hood in Los Angeles. The second photo was taken yesterday. Getting close to 17 years ago. It's a little snug, but it fits! Still looking for the cycling shades. I'm about the same weight, it's just "redistributed" a little. Not to brag… oh wait… yes, to brag... from about 2008 to 2009, I lost around 80 lbs. I counted calories and I worked my ass (most of me, really) off. More on the RB-1 later. It's going to be a long, hot summer. Current temperature, 104° F.
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