A Little Bit of Everything

SUMMARY: Busy busy busy.

OK, 1500 photos is too many. I knew that. Really I did. But it's taking forever and my brain is frying from choosing which of the many mediocre photos of Havasu Falls "The Most Photographed Waterfall in the World" are worth saving or even posting. And like that.


I am very tired. I am either still very tired or again very tired. On the trip I never had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep except one night in the canyon when my knee throbbing and jabbing in pain woke me up and kept me awake for a while both from the pain and the worry about being 8 miles from my van with a 20-lb. pack and a disgruntled knee. But eventually I went back to sleep and so did my knee. Which otherwise mostly behaved. But I was so tired that the morning we were supposed to leave the lodge at 4:30 a.m. I apparently slept through 4 alarms of two alarm clocks and my Hiking Friend had to wake me up. Today, I am tired like that, without a good excuse.

Last night I did the Wednesday evening hike with the Sierra Club group and this time instead of snapping photos, I was determined to keep up with everyone and just keep moving moving moving. I did OK. I stopped only when the leaders stopped at trail junctions or the like. But those folks can really haul! Even concentrating on just moving moving moving, a good portion of that crew would gradually pull way far ahead of me. I sweated a lot, although it was a bit chilly and I don't usually sweat much, I'm that kind of dry person.


We hiked Monte Bello Open Space Preserve to Black Mountain again--a few hundred feet elevation change over 4-5 miles. The air was pretty clear for the South Bay Area.

Nice views from the top of the mountain, where we all had time to share snacks that we brought. I took a bag of dried apricots and they seemed pretty popular. There were 18 of us on this hike, or maybe 17 if you don't count the interesting guy who never really hung out with the group but instead jogged back and forth and up and down around us the whole time, never really coming closer than about 50 feet. I was challenged just walking briskly.


Then we hiked out just as fast and made it out around sunset.

So maybe I am tired from that. Last night I was so tired that I dreamed about being so tired that I went to sleep on saturday and didn't wake up until Wednesday. Then I woke up and it was Thursday. Except I went to sleep on Wednesday. But it was 8:30 in the morning, which is late for me.

And maybe it was from the really brisk sweaty hike or maybe it was from dealing with a brand new laser printer setup and a brand new disk drive setup and a start-up disk that's too full to be functional and stuff like that. I'm not quite dead in the water but almost. I hate that.

So I woke up, tired, after dreaming about being tired, and I'm tired.

The dogs are bored with me doing photos and upgrading my computer equipment. I'm trying to get them ready for this weekend, which is a 2.5-day USDAA trial, by running them around the yard like crazy dogs, like into a tunnel on one side of the yard, over a jump in themiddle of the yard, into the tunnel on the far side of the yard, over the jump, etc. I figure that if my dogs can run really really fast through tunnels then I don't have to practice fast contacts (or actually reliable contacts), or not knocking bars, or distance handling for gamblers, or challenging weave pole entries or exits, or running past obstacles for snooker. Yes, really really fast tunnels will fix everything.

But I am too tired to think about any of that other stuff. I will hate myself this weekend when I drive out to the central valley and sleep in my van and end up not getting any Qs because I didn't practice anything that I needed to practice and why on earth did I enter DAM Team with both dogs again?

But at least this year the temperature should be only in the 70s or maybe 80s in Turlock; a couple of years ago at this trial it was 100 or so.

And then Saturday morning I pulled both dogs from Gamblers because it's first thing in the morning and my First Nephew is graduating starting at 8 a.m. from Stanislaus State, which is only about 8 minutes from the agility site, so I'm going to try to see him graduate and get back in time for Pairs Relay.

Then that evening maybe I'll try to join his family for celebrating. Why am I tired already thinking about it? At least I mostly unpacked everything from the Havasu/Grand Canyon trip, but I still have to pack for this weekend.

And my blackberries are ripening like crazy now; I could spend half an hour a day picking the ripe ones which is physically tiring, but they taste soooooo good for breakfast.

And really I'd like to have my annual blackberry ice cream (or sorbet) party in my back yard, which would have to be the weekend after this, and no time to finish planting all those flowers I bought, let alone actually planning and inviting anyone.


I am really tired, did I mention that? Naptime.