Grasshopper

I was all set to do these. They sound like my kinda races.
Sorta like the Billy Cross races. I didn't do any of the Billy Cross races last year, but we went and supported Morgan when he did one of the 6 hour races and I immediately fell in love. This year I'll do some Billy Cross.
Anyway, Morgan was yapping about the Grasshopper series and how much fun they'd be and the groovy environment and I thought, excellent! Another cool mtn bike race series.
And then I read the fine print, that the first race is "50 miles or so" and the 2nd race is "70 miles or so" and the 3rd race is "85 miles or so".
Uh, these are mountain bike races, right? I asked Morgan. Of course silly, he said. You should do them all with me, he said. It'll be the first time we'll race in the same race together. We'll get grandma to come and watch the kids. It'll be so much fun!
Not that my mom doesn't support our hobby, but even I have to think about whether or not I want to hang around entertaining my kids under a hot tent in 90 degree weather for 5 hours, waiting for Morgan to finish a race. I can't imagine my 65 year old mom really enjoying that. She's into stuff like sipping white wine in a napa vineyard and talking about Italy and food and real estate and shopping.
But then, thank god I saw that the 4th race is "25 miles or so".
"...these events are organized not for profit, but for fun. The less fun you have, the more you will pay. Do your homework... bring plenty of food, water, tools, clothing, catnip and blankey..."
Maybe I'll go to support Morgan for the first few, but I think I'll only be doing the last race.

Lessons For A Good Life

1.  Do not complain about your life.2.  Do not blame others for things that you have brought upon yourself.3.  Be content with who you are and where you are.4.  Do whatever you can to bring to others such contentment, joy, and understanding that you have managed to find yourself.

Last snow of the winter?

For most of the winter we have been in a snow-free bubble in Edinburgh. The rest of Scotland, and even the rest of the UK, have had dumps of snow. Traffic-stopping, school-closing snow. So it was a surprise to travel north through the central Highlands the other weekend and discover the white stuff. Above, Blair Atholl. Below, a desolate scene at the Drumochter Pass.



Herds of deer were foraging near the road.



Blank hillsides - hard to remember that these were vibrant with purple heather a few months ago.



On the lower hillsides of Speyside the snow had all but vanished. Is it wishful thinking that there is a slight haze of spring buds about the trees?

The Good, The Distracted and The Quite Ugly...

Well... here's the good - the last of our wonderful Christmas day with family from big to small, young to old(er) heheh, and what a great day it was for all! Then we pulled out all the stops again, starting with steak. Some of you might remember what this is supposed to mean. Hmmmmmmnnnnnn.
Today I face the San Mateo County Fairgrounds gate as I try for my second leg of Novice A. Mom feels pretty confident that I will qualify.
We pass lots of doggies getting groomed for conformation classes. I barked at these. Not very polite.
I wanted to play with this cute young golden I saw! We finally found our ring, where the Open B classes were still going on. Here is "Dream" handled by Deedee Anderson. Dream won just about everything in that an obedience dog can get. Check out her heel position!
Wow!
Here we are listening to our judge's instructions before we get a walk-through of the heeling pattern. It was very easy. Because my dad was taking movies, there are no stills of my (er... ahem, cough, cough) performance. Suffice it to say, it was furry distracted, although I tried my best. I did the heel-on-leash, the figure-8 and the stand for examination just fine. But my off-leash heeling went south when I was asked to halt and I didn't sit. Weird. And then on the recall, I kinda rolled my head around like I was looking for dad, so I didn't hear mom call me - I really didn't - I was looking somewhere else. On Mom's second call, I was disqualified.
Sorry Ma, but I was worried about where Dad was (she seemed to be saying as she later nom nom-ed on steak...) Next Sunday, I'll be headed for the Cow Palace for a Fun Match to "straighten" things out a bit. (And mom says ditto for her heheh!)

A Short, Warm Ride

With the cold Spring we have had, I was surprised yesterday when I started to prepare for a bicycle ride. Noon, it was already warm and muggy. Filtered sunshine and almost no wind. Still wanted to ride, so grabbed the road bike and loaded it on the car rack.

In the morning, I was still tired from the ride Saturday, so slept in. Kitting up for my ride, i realized that I had not eaten, so grabbed an apple to eat on the drive to the trailhead.

Aired up the tires and lubed the chain on the bike. Already, I could feel the humidity (though it was only in the low 70s. Headed out of the Lake Manawa Trail. Took it easy, but still feeling pretty good - a decent speed up Mosquito Creek.

A little over 2 miles into my ride, I saw "Tom" (a wildlife photographer - "birder" friend) on the trail. Stopped to visit with him. After all, I was not in any hurry. Drank some water before heading on down the trail. I started realizing that this was not going to be a good ride! Was happy to get to the Indian Creek Bridge for rest and consume fluids. It was obvious, it was time to turn back to the car.

By the time I got back to where Tom was photographing a nest of owls in a tree across the road, I was a little light headed. Stopped long enough to take a couple photos of Tom, drank some water, and popped a Shot Blok in my mouth. On down the trail to car.

A mile from the car, I had to stop to drink the rest of my Gatorade and almost the rest of my water. Slow ride with the wind (what little there was). Seemed it took all my energy just to load the bike and exchange shoes. Glad I still had some of my ice water in the cup in the car.

After resting a bit, I warmed up a pizza from the freezer. Drank lots of water and washed doen the pizza with PowerAde Zero. Processed the couple photos (that's my wildlife photographer friend Tom) and crashed into bed.

Don't want to duplicate that ride! It was about the worse I have ever felt finishing a ride.

Diluvian New Year

Holy cats, has it been raining!

We had 4.5 inches one night, then 2.5 inches fell the next day. (That's about 11.5 cm and 6.5 cm.)
I'm a few days late in posting these pictures, and the ground is still boot-sucking soggy.
If "beaver-drowning rain" isn't an old country expression, it should be. Driving towards town, I saw two dead beavers on the side of the road. You know it's a lot of rain when that happens.

It's hard to complain about this much rain after 3 years of drought. But it was starting to become worrisome.

Jasmine fretted. She whined. She barked at the water!

Just starting to recede.

Ahh. Much better.
This is a little drainage ditch that hasn't had water in it for 3 years or so.
This was the last time the water was so high. That was in the spring (when you expect that sort of thing), almost 4 years ago now.
They say it's going to rain again tomorrow...

You Are Here

Small, two day vacations include naked drummers and lemonade stands out in the middle of the Pinehurst mountains on your way back from your 50 mile, 90 degree bike ride.

Small, two day vacations include driving over to Tijuana that same night and eating tamales and drinking tequila.



Small, two day vacations include driving along the coast the next day and riding bikes by Mavericks and old biplanes and chickens and on the bluffs on the ocean to sweat out all the tequila.