Weekend Update

Friday was like this - get up at 6am for 8:05am BESC hike up lower FR181 (off West Jemez) and down Short-cut Trail, back to the twin water tanks (led by Bill Davis - Mary still not leading hikes but came to sign us in - she said they still don't have a diagnosis for whatever's ailing her), then, spouse met Joe and Ron at Viola's while I stayed home and ate lunch, departed for Santa Fe shopping trip at 12:30pm, back home by 3:30pm or so, put everything away, ate supper, picked up daughter to go up to upper FR 181 so she could jog (she liked the trail - I liked going to the trail in early evening - she jogged - I walked), back home past 7pm and then spouse wanted to walk to Gordon's Concert where we stayed very briefly, and I finished day with resistance exercises and stretches.

Saturday was sleep in until 9pm and then a late afternoon hike on the lower Water Canyon Trail outside of White Rock. I have to convince spouse that White Rock is too hot to walk in until October. I collected various flower samples to identify but didn't make much progress. Everyone thinks that I know flowers but I really don't so I'd like to refresh my knowledge.

Spouse was so tired after the over-heated walk in lower Water Canyon that he suggested going to Santa Fe on Sunday rather than hiking again. When I woke up and saw it was cloudy and had been raining overnight, I agreed that we'd do that. We stopped at the new, not yet open, REI and its next door neighbor, Borders. Then we went to Walmart where I picked up my one and only prescription that I take. Spouse dropped me off at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, next to Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers, while he went to Panda Express for lunch (my lunch was a pint of carrot juice and a protein Organic Food Bar). I unsuccessfully looked for a new pillow at BBB and then shopped for some Rocky Mountain National Park trip food at VC/NG. When we got home, I went out again to drop off at daughter's the Sunday newspaper and treats for grandson for his school lunches. Then I stopped at the library. Now I'm briefly on the computer before I eat supper - starving!

I'm reading a book called the Anti-Alzheimer's Prescription. It's very interesting and definitely makes me feel I should add daily brain neurobics (as the author of the book, Dr. Vincent Fortanasce calls them) to my daily routine before my brain cells rot away.

As I type this, it's pouring down rain again but no thunder and lightning. My walk tonight may be interesting.

Addendum on Mushroom Critters

Well, I checked the boletes stew for more maggots (they're not huge - very thready) this morning and tossed out some more. I actually ate half of the mixture for lunch, pureeing it. As I think about it more and more, though, I plan to throw out the other pint and try to forgot that I ever ate little mushroom critters!

What I've learned: Be very, very picky about mushrooms just as Mahlon is. I was eager to try wild boletus but I really would rather not know when I'm eating insect larvae (the FDA allows a certain percentage of such critters in our food).

Doctor Visit - Will Live

I told Dr. Church about my bout of small intestine blockage in Alamosa, CO while on vacation. He agrees with Dr. Dooley that adhesions from my pelvic surgery 17 years ago is the likeliest cause. All I know is that it has the potential to kill me (my own assessment) if one day I can't decompress the intestinal blockage via throwing up.

Dr. Church said to keep the orthopedic surgeon appointment and that Dr. Miller is the best in the state. He agreed to let me get an MRI of my foot/ankle and I'll do that on Tuesday at the Los Alamos Medical Center. I'll carry the foot/ankle MRI and earlier foot/ankle x-ray to Albuquerque when I go down for my appointment. I wish I would have asked Dr. Church what, if anything, I can do to help my foot in the meantime but he offered no further suggestions. Afterwards, I stopped at the library and trolled through the non-return box and then I came back home after the appointment. I will exercise this evening. My foot is bothering me today. Wonder how it will behave tonight.

Tomorrow is the BESC hiking group and a Santa Fe trip. It's still unknown if I'll do trail work this Saturday or Sunday. I'd like to but spouse seems to frown on the idea since I'm going out with Dorothy on Monday, thus using one of our Labor Day weekend vacation days. Well, he could get in shape and join me on both the Dorothy outing and the trail work if he really wants to spend quality time with me! To be honest, though, bushwacking and trail work would not be everyone's cup of tea even if they are in good shape. But, after watching the Garrison Keillor Rhubarb tour show in Santa Fe where he talked about life being short and we all know where we're going to end up (not in such barren terms - it was a humorous monologue), I should be allowed to fulfill my life in ways that make me happy before I meet my inevitable end. The same applies to spouse. I know that a trip with Dorothy Monday and a trail work day this weekend would make a very busy time for me but I found the cross-training of the trail work to be exhilarating.

Maggots Are Nutritious

Hi,

Thanks for giving me the chance to try wild boletes. I chopped up the cap and stems, added them to onions that I had softening by simmering. I simmered all that and toward the end, added some chopped garlic, thyme, basil, oregano, worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, and red wine. It tastes very good but the small, white worms are visually off putting! : ) I'll go through it tomorrow and try to pick out some more worms. There are not tons of them but the distressing thing is that they don't melt, they boil up firmly and hang suspended in the mushroom broth like thick white pieces of thread. I researched maggots on the Internet and I guess that eating a few won't kill me but I think that you are on the right track about having standards for boletes! : ) I think after I pick out some more of the tiny worms, I should puree the broth and see if that disguises them! : ) It tastes too good to throw out.

Oats Wild

Pajarito Ski Area Mountain Bike Trails

Went on WI hike today to Pajarito Ski Area mountain bike trails. Leon led it. There were 19 people. A few were way behind and kept in touch with walkie-talkies but they never caught up to the main group. We ate lunch on the Rim Run overlook of the Valle Caldera.

Mahlon was searching for boletus. He comes with his wife (need to find out her name) and his dog, Jake. He scours the conifor forest for boletus. He found some today that were not up to his standards so he gave them to me. I'll stew them tonight. They seem to be the real thing. Yesterday, I found some mushrooms along FR181, American Springs Road, that were most likely the aspen boletus. I showed them to Mahlon and David K. this morning and then recycled them in the forest. I can see the difference now. The boletus has a very bulbous, fat stem. David B. says that he stews the sponge or tubes of the boletus along with the cap. Mahlon takes it off.

David K. found a small handful of chanterelles. They are very tiny!

I need to buy a mushroom book for this area. David K. recommended two:

Chanterelle - A Rocky Mountain Mushroom Book by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson, Johnson Books, Boulder, 1986.

Wild Mushrooms of Telluride, Ed by Linnea Gillman, et. al., Fungophile, Inc., Denver, 1996.

I mostly walked and talked with a woman named Donna from Santa Fe, who came up with her brother, Bill. She likes to look at flowers too but seems to know more about them than me. She took a flower ID course at Santa Fe Community College from Bill Neuwirth and says he's a good teacher. Becky, who is the flower guru, came along for part of the trip.

Wandering Pines

Dorothy trip today. I drove us to a parking place off FR36 (going on in Dome Road, FR289), not too far past Graduation Flats. We walked over to and crossed upper Spruce Canyon. It has a lovely meadow. Then we followed a road/motorcycle trail into Pines Canyon and followed it downstream for a while (an actual stream was running). We stopped when it just got too narrow and bushy for us to walk through. Also, it was steepening - there was a tiny waterfall where we turned around. It was wet in the canyon and slippery but we didn't kill ourselves.

Dorothy was searching for the old road to Pines, where there once was the ranger station for the Cochiti fire district. She didn't have the email from Harry that gave details of how the road ran but seemed to have an idea of what she was looking for and had historic maps, a current topo map, and a map from the forest service's travel management rule process.

Dorothy decided that the roads we found were probably just logging roads and were not historic roads.

We got back to my car just as it began raining and then we drove a little further on FR36, past the cattleguard, to the road that goes to the gravel pit in Pines Canyon. It was raining but not too hard. Lightning was fortunately not a factor. We left our packs in the car and walked downhill into a soggy but pretty side canyon of Pines. We turned around when the side canyon intersected Pines Canyon, just a little ways upstream from where we had gone down into Pines Canyon earlier.

Even though we didn't get very wet on our trip, it rained heavily again in Los Alamos.

We may go out next Monday to look at the old boundary of the east rim of the Baca Ranch. Dorothy wants to find the boundary markers.

Coyote Call Trail

The BESC group went to the Coyote Call Trail today. There were 6 of us. Mary was there to sign up people but said we'd probably have to find a new leader. Darlene told me that Mary had been in the hospital but Darlene didn't know any other details. This is only Darlene's 3rd hike she's ever taken and she loves hiking. She's gone twice with the BESC group and once with a YMCA group from Albuquerque. She was very enthusiastic about the hike she took with them - the Valle Grande Trail.

I was going to stay with the group on the Coyote Call loop but when they went a tiny way on the Alamo Boundary Trail, I had to keep going. I was telling myself while walking out to Dome Road that I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful area with all the trails we have.

My foot is no better. It's very distressing. I wish I knew of something to help it right now. I'll do some stretching and strength work this afternoon.

I usually don't eat a lunch but I was ravenous today. I ate a can of beans, 2 pieces of rye bread, a tomato, a smear of sesame paste, and a cinnamon apple Clif Nectar bar but I'm still hungry.

Dentists - A Necessary Evil

I was so bummed out yesterday after the dentist appointment and also because of extreme lack of sleep from getting up at 5:30am to go to Albuquerque both for the dentist appointment and a 9:30am Acura service appointment.

I always get this feeling about my dentist that even though he is nice to my face that he thinks I'm a hysterical female behind my back. Yesterday I caught a fleeting glimpse of him making an exasperated, impatient face behind my back. Maybe it's not against me personally and he's just overworked and finds females are fair game to take out his job frustration on. He's always super nice to my face but I think he feels like I'm complaining too much about the fit of my splint that I wear at night. I can't help it that it was fitting perfectly at night and then the last visit when he adjusted it, it caused my teeth to clamp together on my right side and made my right bottom tooth sore. He did another adjustment yesterday and I'm still determining if it works or not. I was too chicken to try sleeping last night on my right side. Ever since the last adjustment when the tooth got sore, I switched to sleeping on my left side until I could get in to see him yesterday.

Another thing that pisses me off is that each time I pay over $100 for these adjustments. It's like I might as well pay $1000 (I'm guessing!) all at once for a new splint rather than slowly dribbling money away on these adjustments.

Saying all that, I still think that he's a good dentist. I just wish he would move to Santa Fe or Los Alamos!

We skipped the Betty Ehart Senior Center hike today because I could not bear the thought of getting up at 6am to get ready for it. I missed going on it but was happy to sleep in.

Lots of good food shopping at Vitamin Cottage in Santa Fe. Now that I'm cutting back on nuts, I need to add back some more whole grains so I bought some bread, crisp bread, rice, cooked cereal, and dried cereal. I also bought some taste enhancers like gomasio, ginger, low fat ginger vinaigrette, red curry paste, and black bean dip.

Tomorrow we hike as we're all shopped out for the meantime.

The doctor thought that Norm's rash, which has basically faded, was from contact with an unknown plant allergen. I don't think we have bedbugs after all.

Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

Norm's wondering if we brought home some bedbugs from our vacation in Salida and Alamosa. He has some red marks on his lower legs. I'm washing his bedding using hot water but can't wash the mattress cover because it's too big for our machine. If he gets more red marks, I'll have to make a trip to the laundromat.

WI hike very good - lots of altitude gain and a total of 6.77 miles. Only 15-16 people. Some only went to Paliza Pass, coming from as far away as Santa Fe - admirable! I had never gone up Los Griegos quite the way that we did. Part was on blue diamond XC ski trails, part on Upper Los Griegos Road, and part on a trail. The trail part hurt my right foot because it was so canted and because the Asics shoes I tried out yesterday from Roadrunner Sports did a number on my foot and set it up for pain. Oh, well - I made it up and down and I'm alive but rolling my feet across the tennis balls - feeling better already!

I'm getting used to the group's laid back attitude about breaking up into 2 groups. They keep track of each other via cell phone and it works for them.

Mahlon looked for boletus but found none he wanted to take home. Leon says this year is a poor one for butterflies. Bob says there are 2 Spanish classes held at MPL - one free and one pay. Kathy enjoyed my lunch spot on Los Griegos and agreed that it has great views. I always sit where I can get the best view of Redondo Peak. Barbara did a good job leading, building directional arrows for the slow group. On Upper Los Griegos Road, we even put pieces of paper directing which way to Los Griegos and which way to Paliza Pass!

It was really dramatic today with the dark clouds massing above but sunshine directly overhead. No rain happened except on the drive home.

WI: Upper Water Canyon-American Springs Road Hike

There were 26 people. Upper Water Canyon was lush and lovely. An amazing amount of work has gone into clearing it after the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire. There are even log bridges. The raspberries were thick - I can imagine bears down in the canyon enjoying a sweet snack. A savory snack could then be provided by a passing hiker! The cutleaf coneflower (pretty sure) was spectacular - huge masses of cheery yellow that were nearly as tall as me in places.

When we got to American Springs Road (FR181), the group continued east on the road to the left turn off (the one that goes up a tributary to Water Canyon and eventually to Cerro Grande). From there, we picked up the Fireline Trail and took that over to FR2997 and that back to FR181 and then down to the water tanks off NM501 and back to Water Canyon.

I really admire anyone who takes on the task of leading a group this big and can sympathize with our LL leader not wanting the group to get any bigger. Kathy, the leader, did stop and wait for everyone at crucial junctions but Renate, in the slow group, fell and had to be attended to (she was OK) which caused the slow group to get way behind. When Kathy found this out via a cell phone call to the lagging group, she made a point to wait for everyone at the meadow where FR181 makes the big right turn to go south. It seemed, though, after that, that the fast group (me too!) galloped ahead toward the lunch spot Kathy was hoping for, and, in the meantime, the slow group made the executive decision to stop for lunch.

We all wondered what had become of the slow group. Kathy called them again and discovered that they had stopped for lunch and didn't really know how to get back to the cars so she had to change her plans slightly because, wisely, she didn't want to split up the group so we had lunch and afterwards, when the caboose group joined us, we all went down FR181 together.

It rained a few drops and thundered weakly at lunch but no bad weather developed.

A big German shepherd, Jake, a fine-looking dog, was on the hike. He carried his own water and a few pieces of litter that his owner, Mahlon, picked up to put in Jake's saddlebags.

Need New Paradigm for This Online Journal

First of all, because it would be too boring and lengthy for daughter to ever want to read. The only reason I'd want to read an online journal written by my mother is to see if it gave me any insight into the person she was. Detailing what she did, day by day, would be boring and I'd just skim it for the juicy parts.

Also, I'm tired of the labels for the post and of writing in complete sentences. In a written journal, phrases are often the order of the day. Extracting labels gives me anxiety as to if they're descriptive or not. I'm only doing it because I started doing it and am obsessive in that way. I doubt that anyone's going to care if I put in labels or not. Probably when I kick the bucket, Blogger won't exist and daughter will just be reading this in backups on CD ROM.

Really, when you think about it, a written journal would have a lot more archival longevity and be more accessible for my heirs but I know that as soon as I stop typing in Oats Wild, I won't start writing in the composition book journals. I never had a good track record for that, only writing in them every few months.

Maybe I just don't want to keep a journal at all! I'd rather spend my time reading a book. Is the world going to really care if I don't detail my days? I haven't written in this since last Thursday and I would really, really like to detail each day, in the spirit of obsessiveness, but I'd like to get done on the computer. Spouse is taking it in to Dr. Mac for an upgrade tomorrow so we can use the iPod we got with our LANB credit card SCORE Rewards. He also bought an external harddrive for me to move my photos to.

I walked 2 miles up Pipeline Road today. Visually, the green gambel oak bushes do nothing for me. It was a lot prettier in the spring when the gambel oak leaves still wore their reddish fall raiment and golden grass dotted the hillsides. The wildflower display as seen at the edge of the road wasn't overwhelming. The prettiest wildflowers were the Indian paintbrush, coneflower, and gayfeather but there wasn't a lot of those. There was a lot of snakeweed (at least I think it was snakeweed).