Today's walk report: 050821

 That's right, you read right, today I went for a walk. My first walk since the Ides of March, March 15, 2020. One week ago today I was fully vaccinated having duly waited two weeks for my immune system to recognize the covid-19's spike protein as an intruder. I gave it an extra week. Did I feel confident going out maskless into the real world? Not entirely and I did have a mask at the ready in the pocket of my hoodie. 

 My plan was to go out at the crack of dawn, sunrise is currently at 5:57, I left about nine minutes before that. Most of the get out early reasoning was to avoid others. I also wanted to take advantage of 53º-54º temperatures, in part because I wanted to wear the hoodie for the convenience of said pocket. Aside from some very light traffic I only saw one person out on the street, a guy on a bicycle walking his dog. The dog was on a very long retractable leash. I didn't know that at first, from a distance it seemed like the dog was going wherever he wished to go. Their presence encouraged me to cross the street. Crossing that street and turning left on the next block took me on a longer journey than where my head was at before seeing them. I was already thinking to round the corner I was approaching and circle back home, only about a quarter of a mile in. I was suffering a little.

My immediate reaction out the door of the house was a big uh-oh with lower back pain and a nagging ache I've been experiencing for several days in my left calf muscle. Specifically, the gastrocnemius, medial head. My back completely mellowed out a 1/3 of a mile into the walk. The calf muscle went from about a 5.5 to a 6.5 on the E.P. pain scale. Nevertheless, I marched forward. It was a short walk by my standards. 3 to 5 miles is kind of normal, not that anything is normal anymore. The total walk door to door was 1.63 miles or 2.63 km. The mood was melancholy. So was the music.

I tried to take a few photos with my iPhone but I still find using that device as a camera to be both annoying and awkward. I think this photo, on a couple of levels, is the most symbolic, perhaps metaphorical of my renewed effort to get out and walk.

Today's not much of a walk, report: 042020

This is a walk to my driveway. That starts about 12' from the front door and extends about another 50' out to the street. That's about as far in front of the house as I honestly feel like walking to lately, although I have ventured as far as curbside onto the street generally to take out garbage cans or to at least make some effort at controlling weeds etc., along the curb strip. Today marks 52 days of self-quarantine during the covid-19 pandemic.

I have driven out the driveway only 6 times in those 52 days and I only got out of the car once. That was for the last walk report. There's been a lot of rain during this period. With that and wildflower seed that had blown into the cracks of the aged asphalt driveway, has borne weeds but mostly ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) and a few African daisies (Dimorphotheca sinuata). This is a second growth of these flowers on the property this season. There are lots of pictures mostly to give you an idea of just how many flowers are growing out of the cracks, nooks and crannies

Add a little elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata)

Stay home and stay safe.