Grandson Was Over Tonight

Daughter is taking a jujitsu class on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Y from 7-8:30pm. We'll watch grandson for her every other week.

I wanted to walk with him but spouse had him watch a show he taped off the Science Channel so I walked by myself back and forth to the LA Airport for my exercise.

Hungry

I drove to White Rock this morning to check out the Jemez House Thrift Shop for old jackets with elastic sleeves. I want to cut off the bottom of the sleeve above the wrist to make homemade gaiters. The gravel that I collect in my shoes when I hike isn't doing my orthotics any good. I didn't find any jackets or anything else to buy. Stopped at WRMPL and got out a bunch of new books that I don't have time to read in a week but I'll browse them next week.

Spouse is at work now putting the finishing touches on his hour long presentation that he'll give next week.

Got gas at Metzgers and then decided to drive back up to the townsite and check out the library's non-return shelves. Found nothing but did buy Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone for $4. I'll never actually use it but it will be good for reference and loads cheaper than buying it brand new! It has loads of recipes using dairy in it so it's vegetarian and not vegan but recipes are adaptable.

Oh, yes, I dumped some wheat grass powder at the icy edge of Ashley Pond for the fishies! When took out the plastic bag, it smelled so grassy! My smoothie this morning tasted so much better without it!

Drove back home and plan to eat a very late lunch soon and then get back on the computer for some web surfing. Always questing after some idea or another! I want to find a place to order printer ink cartridges online. Computers are timesavers but also timewasters but I'm insolubly hooked into them!

I'll tape Prairie Home Companion at 4pm and listen to it when I exercise by walking downtown tonight!

Wonderful to Be Able to Hike

I hike pain-free nowadays with the wonderful orthotics from the Albuquerque physical therapist - what a blessing!

Went with spouse on WRSC hike on road to sewer treatment plant. They actually were adventurous enough to take a look-see at the new sewer treatment plant. The payoff was that they also got to see all the fantastical shaped tent rocks in Pueblo Canyon near the new plant. They enjoyed speculating on the shapes and imagined they saw Jaws, Darth Vader, an eagle, Cyrano de Bergerac. We did 4 1/2 miles altogether. There were only five of us. There is talk that the group may go on the Railrunner trip January 27. Mary asked if I would check out the Nambe Badlands from the Salzman's book for a future hike. I would like to do that next week.

Enjoying quiet time at home after finishing load of laundry. Am surfing on the computer. Spouse went into work this afternoon to refine his presentation that he'll give next week.

Not Much Accomplished

In fact, it was more of an anti-accomplishment day in that I wasted a lot of time feeding the ducks. This morning, I took the pile of brewers yeast candy (brewers yeast and honey) to Ashley Pond and threw it on the ice and quickly got out of there. It honestly looked like a pile of cow plop. I wonder if anything ate it. I've thrown some really disgusting looking stuff for the ducks. I just couldn't eat it anymore. It's not that it tasted terrible - when I was hungry, it was actually quite good for brewers yeast but I don't need all that honey.

Then, this afternoon in an attempt to get rid of the blackstrap molasses (also purchased to make the brewers yeast palatable), I cooked the ducks up a nutritious batch of glop - aforesaid molasses, cooked whole quinoa, wheatgrass powder, canola oil, masa harina, wheat germ, soy-rice milk and I think that was all but that was bad enough. Actually, it didn't taste too horrible except it was somewhat gluey and I certainly didn't need to spend the next couple of weeks trying to eat it.

I feel badly about wasting all that food but if the ducks or some other animal eats it, I guess it wasn't wasted. It was just a really bad idea to buy the honey and molasses to try to use up the brewer's yeast.

In between feeding the ducks, I stopped at the library. After that, walked up to the first chain turnout and back down on Camp May Road. I swear - the trunks of the aspen sapling are already turning green! The skies were absolutely cloudless.

When I went out this evening to gave the ducks their blackstrap molasses glop (it was too dark to see if the faux "cow plop" was still there), the bank clock said the temperature was 29 degrees. It felt cold and I was glad I walked earlier in the day.

I'm still agonizing over ending the scanning of my genealogy records but I scanned all the records pertaining to our parents and then just plain ran out of steam to scan anymore. I just want to donate the records and get them out of my life. They're not doing anyone any good just sitting in a box in my closet. Maybe someone will find some value in the records and it will help in their family research.

Funny thing this morning - I went out to our trash barrel to pull out the empty bag that the Whole Foods salted roasted peanuts in the shell came in to see if they were recalled due to the Peanut Corporation of America salmonella scare. To my surprise, there were two pieces of trash on top of my twist-tie-sealed black, plastic trash bag. Each had some large pieces of dog poop in them! Once before I found large pieces of dog poop on our sidewalk. One morning when I had to get up around 6am, I noticed a tall man walking two huge dogs on our street. Maybe I'll start waking up at 7:30 am on trash-pickup morning to put out our trash barrel. I guess dog poop in the trash barrel is better than on our sidewalk but I really don't appreciate either!

Meandering Through Life

Woke at 8am. Swept gravel from driveway. Got started on kale soup - just kale, garlic, onions, water, canned diced tomatoes and seasonings, including chili powder, red pepper, thyme, mint, coriander, cumin, garam masala, mango powder, ginger, tumeric and sesame oil. Each night, I'll add it to beans or canned fish and add some miso for the salt.

The soup and brewer's yeast candy took a lot of time and I just now finished breakfast. Brewer's yeast candy consists of brewer's yeast mixed with honey. I had managed to finish a whole huge container of plain brewer's yeast and then bought another huge container but I balked at eating it plain (actually, I mixed it with orange juice) and discovered that honey nicely drowns the flavor. Our backyard neighbor, Irma, highly recommends the stuff but it doesn't taste very good. Even she can only stomach it with honey! I had even tried to make Tiger's Milk with it - soy yogurt or soy milk, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, molasses, and orange juice but that wasn't as good as the brewer's yeast candy!

Finally sitting down at the computer to begin scanning my father's Navy record and after that, the guardianship papers that sent all five of us to our aunt and uncle after we were orphaned when our father died in 1966. I scanned my mother's medical records the other night. Sad to read how quickly she went downhill and died at age 39 during her last hospitalization. I don't plan to donate any of these very personal papers anywhere but am trying to put most of my genealogy records in digital form. I will be scanning for hours today!

Spouse took grandson to see Inkheart. He is so good about taking grandson to the movies and they both enjoy it!

Tomorrow I check out both Deer Trap Mesa and Otowi Mesa (end of Los Pueblos) for the WI. I wonder what has happened to the snow we were supposed to get?

Pundits on Obama's Speech

Pundits on NPR are commenting on Obama's inaugural speech and saying it wasn't soaring or poetic like speeches he gave in the past. I thought it was just right because it was reality based and telling us that it will be a long, hard row to hoe to get this country back on its feet!

Daughter was watching inauguration on CNN and posted a zillion enthused comments on Facebook! I was delighted to read how interested and excited she is about Obama's presidency!

Watched Barack's Inauguration on PBS

Even though I said I was only going to listen to the inauguration on NPR, as soon as I heard mention of Aretha Franklin's arrival, the Queen of Soul, I caved and turned on PBS's inaugural coverage! I bawled during Aretha's singing of My Country Tis of Thee! I bawled at various other moments too. I've now turned off the TV and am once again listening to the NPR coverage.

Barack slightly flubbed the oath but Biden recited his perfectly. Barack's inaugural speech was stirring and makes me wish there was something like a silver corps for seniors by which I could do service for my country. Michelle Obama and Laura Bush were both stunningly beautiful. I felt sorry for George Bush but happy to see him go back to Texas and Cheney to Wyoming.

I hope Barack Obama is a great president who does great things for the United States and the world! God bless and protect his family!

Quiet and Tired

That's from going to bed at 1am the past two nights and waking up at 9am.

Walked ski hill bypass road today for my four miles. Upped weight vest to seven pounds.

Grandson here now. Spouse took him to see a movie. Daughter and son-in-law are driving back from trip to Las Vegas, NM where they looked for ghosts in Plaza Hotel and toured Pecos Monument and Fort Union. Spouse will fix dinner for them tonight.

Started project of going through genealogy files to organize them to donate to Stark County District Library when we visit Ohio this year. May work on it during the day tomorrow and walk downtown in the evening.

Haven't heard from WI's on Wednesday outing. Saw Susi at MPL and she's interested in going.

I have a rash on the back of my hands. It may be from the Aubrey hand lotion that I bought. I plan to return it. I've been not wearing gloves and the lotion may have caused a photo-toxic reaction.

Road to Pueblo Canyon Sewer Treatment Plant

Hey, they've fixed it up - there's no more small stream running across the road at the almost two mile mark and the ice skating rink right before that is gone too. All this is apparently due to the county having repaired the gutter that drains the treated effluent water underneath the road.

Saw several other couples out walking the road with their dogs. Saw a runner at the parking lot with shoes full of mud but he must have ran far to get that muddy because the road had recently been graded and was the least muddy, snowy and icy that it's been in recent years. Saw two climber-type dudes wanting to get up onto mesa east of big Otowi Ruins. They wondered why on one side of the fence the signs read DOE - stay out and on the other side, San Ildefonso - stay out! Does seem a conundrum!

Only went as far as muddy trail into Bayo Canyon.

East Fork Is Lovely!

I had an enjoyable snowshoe on the East Fork today. Parking is somewhat limited because of snow piled up in the back of the parking lot but there is a bare strip wide enough where people can parallel park and even double park.

There were seven vehicles parked at the trailhead so I had to turn around and park at the sign that reads "Snow Plows Ahead", near the Las Conchas rock climbing area. That was fine because you can actually snowshoe/ski over to the trail/river from there and I did just that in the afternoon to get back to my car. There's space enough for maybe three or four vehicles where I parked.

At the start, I actually walked on the road from my parking place and carried my equipment over to the trailhead. I went down through the gate on the left. The snow was thin and semi-icy but it was much less steep than trying to negotiate my way down to the river from the right edge of the parking lot.

Going downstream, I mostly snowshoed along/in the frozen, snowpacked river and tried out as much of the trail as I could on the way back. I went all the way to where Trail 137 turns left to go steeply uphill and where the river goes into a narrow canyon at the VCNP boundary. Here, the river resurfaces from underneath the snow and ice.

I managed to avoid crossing any of the wooden bridges. The area of the river between the first and third bridges has some obvious spots that are melting out but I could easily avoid them. (When I say first bridge, I'm referring to the first river crossing that used to be a hop from rock to rock underneath a stony overhang. That's now been bridged over.)

I saw lots of snowshoers and skiers. I saw one couple that hiked all the way to the end. I asked if they sunk in much and they said it wasn't too bad as long as they stuck to the packed trail.

Skies were sunny and blue. Views along the river were stunning and made more so by all the beautiful snow. The WI's could enjoyably hike, snowshoe and ski on this trail as it is today.

NM-4 is in fine condition. Along the way, people will enjoy stopping at one of the VCNP's parking aprons to admire the Preserve all cloaked in white!