Weekend walk report: Ripples never come back

 Walks taken on Saturday, September 5th and Sunday, September 6th. 

I'm not gonna lie, Saturday's walk was a bitch and I didn't walk very far (total walk was only 1.63 miles). The walk started out really well, out of the car and the first 1/4, mile I was feeling much better than I usually do at the start of a walk. One mistake, the assistant curator for the campus arboretum and botanical garden was working in the arboretum. I stopped to chat. Stopping, standing in place— that’s not something I’m good for these days. First the left side QL started screaming at me. QL--quadratus lumborum, a deep lower back muscle connecting the pelvis, spine, and ribs. Shortly afterwards, it was both shoulders. The main tendons are chronically irritated, and the bone ceiling above them sits a bit too low, creating a tight bottleneck. Nevertheless, I seem to insist on sleeping on my sides. 

Anyway, standing in one spot is notoriously brutal on my lower back and hips compared to staying in motion. Once I stop moving, my QL (both sides) has to work overtime as a static stabilizer to hold my torso upright—and when it's already exhausted or tight, it goes into full spasm mode very quickly. The night before I needed to rearrange 118 lbs of kitty litter in my garage (among other nonsense). Coupled with chronic tendinitis flared up from sleeping on my sides, standing still to chat was a recipe for intense pain.

Here are some pictures from Saturday...

Once again, starting into the local campus arboretum, there was one Cereus peruvianus cactus flower still open from the evening. It was just about 9:00 a.m. when I took this picture. 

 Friday night into Saturday morning I also apparently put a bunch of body weight on my right hand/wrist which is still healing from my being tripped up by a pine cone back on April 26th. Not only did I wake up with pain, I also had a dream about the incident. Further down the path I was taunted once again.

 ×Chitalpa.

 Some same old subjects, different days. Amaryllis belladonna.

 It has been cooler this past week. In fact, I walked every day this week except for Monday. Monday was reserved for dealing with a rather massive amount of ficus debris with a blower and vacuum/mulcher. I only need to work that about another dozen times, and maybe it'll be cleaned up. With the cooler temps, it seems some plants are recovering from the recent heatwave. Unfortunately, it appears we're going back into triple digits this week. Here, this Alstroemeria, Peruvian lily, has been pushing out fresh flowers again.

  Bouteloua hirsuta, AKA, hairy grama or eyelash grass.

Cuphea hyssopifolia.

 

 Salvia farinacea and a bee.

 

 A female monarch playing hard to get.

 

 Once again, my main goal was to spend quality time with at least a couple of hummingbirds. This female Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) was the only one I saw and she wasn't very cooperative. I have found that, unlike Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna), Allen's hummingbirds need some time to get acquainted with me. That generally means multiple visits. 

 

 That was it for Saturday. The discomfort in both shoulders was brutal and I headed back to my car parked 0.65 miles from that little hummingbird. It was a long 0.65 miles. No more talking when I'm out walking. 

 

Sunday, September 6th (that's today, if I get this finished).

 

Currently, it's about 5:30 p.m. and today we got 1.15" of rain (so far). Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, a weather event like this in late summer was essentially unheard of. Historically, the Valley in early September was defined by relentless Santa Ana winds, bone-dry brush, zero humidity, and triple-digit heat. Getting a quarter-inch of rain was a rarity, but pushing past an inch from a tropical plume is an absolute anomaly. This is due to Hurricane Marie, as I type, categorized as a Category 1 hurricane, that is weakening into a tropical storm. 

 

Here's a screenshot from this morning.

 

 And here's a screenshot of incoming precipitation into SoCal this morning. 

 

 I was watching out the windows and watching the radar all morning for an opportunity to go for a walk and take pictures. It was mostly the window watching that got me out the door. I was on foot just minutes before 1:00. It was 69ºF and the relative humidity was 87%. I didn't find that particularly comfortable, but a lot of people would. I was also moving pretty fast. Contrary to yesterday, for the most part, I felt wonderful. 

Here are some pictures from today (yes, some same stuff, but it's different 'cause it's wet!).

This myrtle tree had the first dripping wet flowers I saw. So, I took pictures.

 There's a massive few crops of narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) and a lot of it had been pummeled by the rain. This was hanging down a couple feet over the sidewalk I was on.

 This Coreopsis verticillata plant just amazes me. It seems to always be loaded with flowers. I am going to swipe some seeds from here.

Puddle pictures. These are depicted as I saw them. I like turning obstacles into photo ops.

The Amaryllis belladonna once again, but it's wet. Can you see that? It's wet. With rain! In September!

The agapanthus is not blooming.

I discovered that I could not get a picture of a reflection and ripples both in focus. So, where is the reflection?

 Moving from the arboretum to the botanical garden, 

Rose hips.

 

 Fresh new growth on the wild rose bushes.I'm pretty sure this wasn't there yesterday. 

 

 13 new barrel cactus recently went in, right off the path. Don't ever back into one of these when you're out mowing your yard and you're trying to avoid kicking up dirt onto the neighbor's parked car, so you're not paying attention to where your big feet are. It was also the neighbor's barrel cactus by the way. Close up...

 

 And the granddaddy of the golden barrel cactus (Kroenleinia grusonii).

 

 

 California buckwheat.

 Another puddle, another ripple. No plant IDs inside the puddles.

 

Crimson bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus).

 

A fresh leucadendron sprig. 

 

 Puddles heading baack to my car. It wasn't a very long walk, 1.42 miles but my clothes were sticking to me from the warm humidity. It's still raining by the way.

 

Sail away, away
Ripples never come back
They've gone to the other side
Look into the pool
Ripples never come back

 

Today's walk report: 112313

Never closer to home than the day,
The day I started.

It's a lot of the same so mostly pictures today without the banter (yea!)

Red-tailed hawk above a sweetgum tree.

Green lynx spider still minding her nest--no babies.

Waverly sage (Salvia 'Waverly")

As soon as the music ended on my iPod I hear, honk! honk! Right over my head, I didn't have time to ready the camera. They will be around for quite awhile.

Visiting Canadian geese

Once again options on the sunset. The first shot is a crop from a single image shot 70mm, while the 2nd is a crop from a 7 image panoramic shot vertically at 300mm.

So ends the day. I had a really nice walk.

Today's walk report: 090913

The music made it happen.

I wasn't going to post anything if I couldn't find this concert on YouTube, although I was about 99.87% sure I would. This music carried me through a walk I didn't really want to do and I'm thankful for this because it got my head clear. There were a few songs of other stuff before this but I heard most of this show by the time a got home. Not only had I not wanted to walk but I certainly didn't think I'd be walking for over 1.5 hours. Over 1/2 of that in the dark with my little Cree LED flashlight barely hanging in with battery power toward the end.

By the way, I saw several people walking, usually coming toward me on the other side of the street.  I saw them once they were about close enough to spit on. These are streets with little or no street lights. The street I live on also has no street lights and I for one like it that way. However, if you walk at night and there's any traffic but also for general safety and for crying out loud bring a flashlight.

This thing is 3.5" long and with a fresh AA battery it's super bright. Not only a great tool for being seen and avoiding potholes and debris it's probably a good tool for self defense. I've seen them advertised for that and I can understand why. The light is blindingly bright. It is, at the very least, disorienting in someone or some thing's face. Zombies included. You can pick these up on Amazon for less than $5, shipping included.

Here's the music... It's a bootleg. It's freely traded. If you like the band Genesis it's a must own. If you don't know anything about the band it's probably not a great start. If you know absolutely nothing about progressive rock music go do some Googling and open that door. If you think Justin Timberlake is really good music... I probably can't help you. During the day I was inspired to listen to works by Russian composers, Prokofiev, Borodin, Rimsky Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. The only one of those who has made it to a walk with me is Stravinsky. I just thought I'd throw that in.

Today's walk report: 073113

Walk and ride.

Yesterday I told myself I needed to get back on track with the exercise bike. This after what has become my semimonthly weigh-in on the digital scale. The scale that has to remind me where I was the last time I got on it, before I can step on it anew. It wasn't awful; how bad could a couple of weeks be anyway? Thing is, I've been stuck at a certain weight I'd like to be 8-10 lb lower than for a few months now, and that means I'm not trying hard enough.

Last year from June through August, I was doing quite well by adding the bike into my daily routine. Last year I had a lot more other stuff to do. I don't really feel I have any excuses now. The reason I quit the bike beginning of September 2012 was my mother wasn't doing so well. You see, in case you've missed this, most of the reason I'm here was to take care of my mother. With her decline went stuff like my working out on the bike. Quite selfishly, I wanted to turn that extra time into relax time, not workout time. I'm not sure it did me any good, but at least I thought I was finding some comfort.

This is the bike, a Spirit XBR25. It wouldn't have been my choice for the price. My mom bought this. It's pretty decent for what it is, and it's comfortable for the most part. It's also here. In the living room.

Somehow I made it through most of the day not thinking about the bike. However, it nagged me during my walk, and I decided not to accept these words, "it's okay, I'll start tomorrow," but instead told myself, "you're going on the bike as soon as you get home." Which was pretty much the case. I did decide I should hydrate some first. Next, I got Pandora up in the living room just for something different to listen to. I chose my "Genesis" station for whatever reason and went to the bike.

I was a little surprised when a commercial for Cedars-Sinai Hospital's Spine Center came on after two songs. I probably haven't listened to Pandora in about a year. I did not know they were doing audio commercials now. It was a 20-second spot. That's alright. I was more disappointed in the really commercial Genesis/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel and a little Stingish playlist. Oh well. On the walk, I thought to add Return to Forever, I should've spent a moment and tried that.

Anyway, I was going to keep this short because nobody cares, and of course, I'm tired and desperately in need of a shower and some dinner. 8.26 km on the walk. Here's how I work the bike. It’s a little game I play because the bike is so boring. I do % to goal. The goal is 500 calories burned. However accurate that number is, it doesn't matter--that's the goal. First workout in almost a year, I did 74% to goal. I got a "C." That's fine. In fact, I probably overdid it.

Here's what I'm looking at from a ride last year. P= Pulse and it's blank because I'm holding the camera and not the bike handles. I don't think it's very accurate or responsive anyway. Elapsed time, mileage, and calories. So on this day, I was 83% to goal. Average speed was about 20.04 mph or
32.25 kmh. I anticipate reaching this speed in the coming days.