A Leap into the Pond of Life in Everyday Ramblings

I am still seeing flowers when I close my eyes.

We had a most spectacular day on Saturday here, it wasn’t only warm out, it actually got hot, 83°F (28.3°C). S. and I had planned a long walk on Thursday but she had to cancel for an emergency dental appointment so we went Saturday instead. The plan was she was supposed to bring her new Heart Rate monitor and binoculars but she (or her cat) misplaced the wrist unit for it so we relied on mine.

She met me at home here and we walked over to the wildlife refuge on the other side of the river. Man was I geared up, HR monitor, activity monitor, regular camera, binoculars on a harness, sunblock, extra shoes, hat, lunch, and my newest toy… the My Tracks Google app on my phone.

We had a great time. It was fun.

I had been out practicing with the My Tracks app earlier and had walked about 3 miles total by the time she got here, including to the farmers market when I snagged one of the few boxes that didn’t go to restaurants of early gorgeous yellow cherry tomatoes. Oh heaven!

I took a picture of them and some strawberries to post on Instagram and ended up cross posting to Facebook in error. Darn complicated phones, little buttons, big hands, grumble grumble, though after looking at pictures of reconstructive surgeries a couple of folks endured after the Marathon bombing I am not taking my functional big hands for granted. (And as grown up hands go mine are actually fairly small.)

We walked just under 10 miles, so in effect I walked the same distance as a half-marathon in the morning. We saw a couple of brilliant Red-breasted Sapsuckers (a flashy woodpecker) and a first for me, a Hutton’s Vireo, a kind of dull gray and light green bird with a hint of a punky ruff on it’s head. I was so excited to see a new to me bird.

S. had never been over there before and what a joy it is to share a beloved place with someone one is fond of. :) She is smart and curious and easy going and in many ways a lot like Kes, which is why I think she might be so easy to be around for me. I saw her last night and she was tired, but doing well. Walking the half-marathon in October should be no problem if we both can stay healthy.

Oh and we saw this gorgeous frog too, a native that is endangered, Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora). He was almost black and I wish I had got a better shot of him. I may go back. They are powerful jumpers and we saw a leap.

It started raining yesterday evening and is raining steadily now and will for days so I am glad we got that adventure in.

Nimrod is blundering around creating all kinds of energy that I’d rather not deal with at work but oh well. I am glad to have a job with insurance.

This daily plank challenge I am doing is indeed a challenge! I am barely making some of the indicated timeframes. Upper body strength takes work but having defined muscles is too cool.

I saw the eye doctor Friday and the super fancy progressive transitional new lenses for my glasses are blessedly going to cost about a third of what I anticipated which will free up more money for my mouth. Today I see a second specialist.

Tomorrow is my local greens cooking class. That will be fun and certainly distracting.

Last updated May 12, 2015