Well, At Least the Hokies Won Today

-

I'm not off to the best start for the new year.

First of all, I fell asleep at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31. Watching some countdown on TV Land.

Then I failed to do the one thing I wanted this holiday weekend. We were supposed to climb Iron Mountain as a family, and when the hike was pushed to this morning we added friends visiting from Colorado. I discovered they were coming when one of them called from the 5 freeway, about 20 minutes away. I was still in my pajamas and the house was a wreck as I handed the phone to my wonderfully absent-minded husband with a dirty look and, later, a few choice words (at blood-curdling decibels).

It poured on and off, so instead of hiking everyone sat around watching Virginia Tech win the Gator Bowl, eating pizza and listening to me monopolize conversations. It's one of the few areas in which I truly excel.

Soon as Zach and Elena were out the door, I was on my work computer and, despite my resolve to work less, found myself working on my day off. Writing a story. Updating Web pages. Organizing story sheets. Returning e-mails. And munching on sausage-cheese balls, cookies, cold pizza and god knows what else in between tasks.

I am tired. I am bloated. I am ready to call it a day.

Popular posts from this blog

Never Is Too Late

-
Image
I was tempted to do a recap of the year just finished and a roundup of goals for this one. And, of course, I was going to post this around January 1. Then I thought: Why? Why not wait until, say, January 28?  Maybe by then I will be a little more confident in achieving what I set out to do. Maybe I’ll have already abandoned or adjusted practices that proved too flimsy to follow, too stubborn to shake. Then my list will be more reasonable, less reckless. You see, January 1, while providing an unspoiled calendar upon which to dream and plot and pretend to be in charge, is really just a date. Granted it’s a date many of us go through hungover (from too much drinking) or hungry (from starting a new diet) or hurting (from overdoing the new exercise program), but that discomfort soon fades as new habits gain hold or old ones return.   Still, I think runners in particular are encoded to prepare well in advance to do something big, like finally run a dream r...
Read more

7 Bridges Hike Through Urban San Diego

-
Image
  One of the most popular hikes in San Diego doesn’t involve climbing mountains or crossing rural roads. It’s a walking tour through some of the city’s nicest, most densely populated neighborhoods with seven bridges as focal points.    I first did this 5-mile loop with friends shortly after it was publicized in the San Diego Reader. We liked it so much we came back to Balboa Park about a year later to do it again, and this time I documented our trip with my GoPro (RIP, dear camera companion). It’s been four years since I made that video, so we were overdue when everyone gathered this morning to start the trek.   I MPORTANT: You can start from anywhere since the course is a loop.   However, you are more likely to find free parking if you start and end in Balboa Park.   1.       Park Blvd Bridge No coincidence the hike starts at the bridge spanning Park Blvd. on the east side of Balboa Park. The bridge links gorgeous gardens to lawns ...
Read more

Nature on the Rebound

-
Image
We opted this year to spend our annual post-Thanksgiving family hike in East County, specifically in an area ravaged three years ago by the Cedar fire. The blaze would eventually consume a third of San Diego County, kill 14 people and come within a a couple of hundred yards of our own home well northwest of here. I was, of course, running when disaster hit. This one would have been easy to run, but my fellow hikers like to linger. I did too that weekend, given an earlier blood donation left me lagging physically for several days. At least this time my multivitamin and last-minute spinach-stuffing got me past the iron screening. We took two trails. One riperian, where we were cooled by a canopy of twisty oaks and the trickle of a nearby stream. The other was up to a rocky summit that proved far more difficult to reach, just as a hiking guide had warned. The last stretch is pretty much slick slate and loose gravel, with nothing for shoes to grab for traction. And if you do make it past t...
Read more