I've been busy! On Tuesday, I went hiking with Jack up on Mt Lemmon. We went on the Aspen Trail, linking up with the Marshall Gulch Trail, forming a pleasant loop. This was supposed to be the same trail that Duane, Herb, and I took a few weeks ago, but .. this was different! Duane had led us up a very steep hill to start our hike, but this trail went up much more gradually. The day was wonderful for a hike -- hot down in the valley, but quite nice up on the mountain.
After our hike, we stopped at the Cookie Shack for a treat. Then Jack said, "Wanna go up and check out the Ski Resort?" "Yes!" And we drove on up. The resort lodge was closed that day, but we could still oooh and ahhh and photograph the scenery!
There is a road that takes off upward from the parking lot, and we decided, since it said that it was closed, to walk up this. We went probably a mile, with many cars going around us, up and down. So we went back down and took the car up! This road went to the very top of Mt Lemmon. A short trail took us to a rock which overlooks all of Tucson. What a cool place, and a great day!
Wednesday I drove up to Phoenix to meet Ron, whom I'd "met" on Yahoo Personals. We got along well, talking as he showed me around his house and then around his part of the city. We had lunch at a neat little restaurant, talked more, and went to the part of town where the Diamondbacks baseball team plays. A Rube Goldberg machine was displayed outside of the stadium, and we enjoyed watching it for awhile.
We parted with plans to meet again, and I made the drive home, singing along with my None Too Soon CD the whole way. I love the music I have, but I do need some new tunes.
Thursday I set about painting the rest of the deck (finally!) and John helped. We got the little deck tables painted, and the top deck edged and most of the railing painted. Yesterday, I finished the railing painting, though it still needs another coat. :/
Today I tried to make some headway on my email, but I'm still way behind.
And Dave's book, Miracle Myx, arrived this week! It's wonderful to see it in print, to hold it in my hands, finally, and to read it again! I just love Myx, the sneaky, fascinatingly quirky, frightfully intelligent young man who takes on the mystery of some grisly murders in his small Massachusetts town. Somehow Dave makes us like this fellow who stops at nothing to learn all he needs to know about people.
And I not only love Myx, but I love the storytelling! Dave weaves this tale in a way that keeps us thinking, wondering, and laughing. Every page is interesting and fun!
If this sounds good to you, put out the $16.47 and do this. (Read more about this book at DaveWritesBooks.com.) This is NOT a paid advertisement! LOL! And I don't love this book just because Dave is my friend.
Let's see.. so what was today? I didn't feel very good today. I'm having more breathing difficulties; I do hope this is not a new trend for me, but I rather think it's something that'll be "cured" when I get out of this very dry and very dusty air.
It's tough to think about leaving right now, though. The weather here is fantastic right now -- really perfect. Now at nearly 11 pm, it's 70° here and 44° in Bloomington. I'm thinking at least another week here, and I can still make it home by mid-May, or maybe the 20th.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday in Tucson
Saguaro Green seemed appropriate for my font today. The saguaros are beginning to bloom around Tucson now! The buds form large upon the tops of the cactus and sometimes its arms. Then the flowers come out huge and white, with yellow centers.
Today Jack and I took off on our bikes, riding a total of 20 miles. We went down Sarnoff, Golf Links, Escalante, Irvington, around a nice little neighborhood, and then back on Old Spanish Trail. The ride was fun and challenging, of course, with wind in our faces the whole time, it seemed!
There were not as many hills as there were in our ride on Saturday, but with the headwind, it was like hard hills in places. We had some good downhills, too. In one place, we got up to 25 mph on a downhill. I guess that means that we must have had some uphills too then, eh?
On this ride, I got a buzz like I get from hiking. I think I'm a roadie!
The hardest part of today's ride had to be the left turns. I don't really like turning left in traffic, and we must have had a dozen left turns today. I'm getting better at maneuvering leftward, being a bit bold, while being careful and predictable. For one of the turns, I did a "box turn," crossing on over to the appropriate forward lane of the cross street, and then waiting for the light to cross, ending up where I would have been if I'd done a "normal" turn.
I have to say that Tucson is an amazingly bike-friendly town. While crashes can and do happen, there are great bike lanes and bike routes. Love it! And of course, I wouldn't even be doing this, if not for the wonderful bike safety class that I took here.
I pre-treated for my asthma, too, and felt much better than before. I was careful to drink enough during the ride, consuming very nearly all of my 65 oz of fluids. What I did screw up, though, was my hands. I had forgotten my gloves, and got a couple of near-blisters between my thumbs and index fingers. Urgh.
When I got home, Jack, John, and I worked on getting my new vertical blinds installed up high to cover the clerestory windows, as needed, and I DO need them covered now, with the piercingly hot direct sun.
Tonight, the boys and I went to Chuy's for a delicious supper. I had broiled fish tacos with cabbage, beans, and rice. :)
Today Jack and I took off on our bikes, riding a total of 20 miles. We went down Sarnoff, Golf Links, Escalante, Irvington, around a nice little neighborhood, and then back on Old Spanish Trail. The ride was fun and challenging, of course, with wind in our faces the whole time, it seemed!
There were not as many hills as there were in our ride on Saturday, but with the headwind, it was like hard hills in places. We had some good downhills, too. In one place, we got up to 25 mph on a downhill. I guess that means that we must have had some uphills too then, eh?
On this ride, I got a buzz like I get from hiking. I think I'm a roadie!
The hardest part of today's ride had to be the left turns. I don't really like turning left in traffic, and we must have had a dozen left turns today. I'm getting better at maneuvering leftward, being a bit bold, while being careful and predictable. For one of the turns, I did a "box turn," crossing on over to the appropriate forward lane of the cross street, and then waiting for the light to cross, ending up where I would have been if I'd done a "normal" turn.
I have to say that Tucson is an amazingly bike-friendly town. While crashes can and do happen, there are great bike lanes and bike routes. Love it! And of course, I wouldn't even be doing this, if not for the wonderful bike safety class that I took here.
I pre-treated for my asthma, too, and felt much better than before. I was careful to drink enough during the ride, consuming very nearly all of my 65 oz of fluids. What I did screw up, though, was my hands. I had forgotten my gloves, and got a couple of near-blisters between my thumbs and index fingers. Urgh.
When I got home, Jack, John, and I worked on getting my new vertical blinds installed up high to cover the clerestory windows, as needed, and I DO need them covered now, with the piercingly hot direct sun.
Tonight, the boys and I went to Chuy's for a delicious supper. I had broiled fish tacos with cabbage, beans, and rice. :)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Janee's new haircut
Miracle Myx has arrived in my mailbox! Yeppers, folks, Dave's book is finally out there. It's not on the brick-and-mortar bookstore shelves till May 1, but it's available now at Amazon! Read about it, and meet Dave at his site, DaveWritesBooks.com. Be sure you click his Where's Myx and MySpace links, too. Dave's got a lot to say, and most of it will make you laugh. Here's the book trailer. I love this!
I just got another email complimenting me on my new haircut, and I have not even posted any pics of it! I'm thinking that you may be seeing that picture of me in my slideshow, in which I'm wearing light blue and my hair is quite short.. with bangs.
Well, I just got my hair cut again, just a week after the first time, because I was not happy with the layering. Now it's .. well, rather than describing it, I'll just post a couple of snaps that John took when we were on our way to the lasagna supper on Friday evening:
Yesterday, Jack and I went for a bike ride. We rode to the 0 mile mark for the Mt Lemmon Highway and then I waited, panting, as Jack rode up to the 1-mile mark and back. Then we rode together to Agua Caliente Park, where, to our delight, they were having a pancake breakfast for $6. Sausage, juice, and pancakes! Yum! They were giving out door prizes and I won one -- an insulated coffee mug, which I really needed. ;) It's always fun to win, though!
After getting our bellies filled, we rode back to the Village, over hill and dale. There was one hill that seemed to go forever -- up, of course! So I'm pedaling as hard as I could, using my "baby gears," seeing about 5 mph on my speedometer. Pant.. pant... and then I see the sign. "Hill," it read. What? What WAS this thing that I'd been climbing? I had to stop and rest while Jack drummed his fingers on his handlebars, far up the road at the top of said Hill.
Once I got my breath back, I steeled myself and oomphed up the hill. Yay! Then came the downhill which seemed equally huge. Looks like they could have saved us some effort, by leveling things out there.
LOL.. so my spellcheck didn't like "oomphed." Usually spellcheck offers suggestions for correct spellings, and I was curious what it would suggest in this case. Here are the suggestions:
So we got back and I was plenty tired. I'd mentioned before that I was thinking that my breathing difficulties were at least partly due to my asthma, and now I'm convinced. I did a few things to help myself for this bike ride, and it seems that the combination helped. This time I drank 20 oz of water an hour before the ride, I took one puff of my inhaler just before leaving, and I took another puff at the 0-mile mark. I was also very careful about staying hydrated on the ride, and tried to not mouth-breathe. That's a toughie, though. (I hope that I'm not showing myself to be too much of a weakling. I'm really not, and I'm feel like I'm working to make myself stronger.)
Here's a video that a friend sent me and it made me laugh. I hope it makes you laugh too:
I just got another email complimenting me on my new haircut, and I have not even posted any pics of it! I'm thinking that you may be seeing that picture of me in my slideshow, in which I'm wearing light blue and my hair is quite short.. with bangs.
Well, I just got my hair cut again, just a week after the first time, because I was not happy with the layering. Now it's .. well, rather than describing it, I'll just post a couple of snaps that John took when we were on our way to the lasagna supper on Friday evening:
Yesterday, Jack and I went for a bike ride. We rode to the 0 mile mark for the Mt Lemmon Highway and then I waited, panting, as Jack rode up to the 1-mile mark and back. Then we rode together to Agua Caliente Park, where, to our delight, they were having a pancake breakfast for $6. Sausage, juice, and pancakes! Yum! They were giving out door prizes and I won one -- an insulated coffee mug, which I really needed. ;) It's always fun to win, though!
After getting our bellies filled, we rode back to the Village, over hill and dale. There was one hill that seemed to go forever -- up, of course! So I'm pedaling as hard as I could, using my "baby gears," seeing about 5 mph on my speedometer. Pant.. pant... and then I see the sign. "Hill," it read. What? What WAS this thing that I'd been climbing? I had to stop and rest while Jack drummed his fingers on his handlebars, far up the road at the top of said Hill.
Once I got my breath back, I steeled myself and oomphed up the hill. Yay! Then came the downhill which seemed equally huge. Looks like they could have saved us some effort, by leveling things out there.
LOL.. so my spellcheck didn't like "oomphed." Usually spellcheck offers suggestions for correct spellings, and I was curious what it would suggest in this case. Here are the suggestions:
So we got back and I was plenty tired. I'd mentioned before that I was thinking that my breathing difficulties were at least partly due to my asthma, and now I'm convinced. I did a few things to help myself for this bike ride, and it seems that the combination helped. This time I drank 20 oz of water an hour before the ride, I took one puff of my inhaler just before leaving, and I took another puff at the 0-mile mark. I was also very careful about staying hydrated on the ride, and tried to not mouth-breathe. That's a toughie, though. (I hope that I'm not showing myself to be too much of a weakling. I'm really not, and I'm feel like I'm working to make myself stronger.)
Here's a video that a friend sent me and it made me laugh. I hope it makes you laugh too:
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