Allergies and Aggravation

The second wave of allergenic trees is now in bloom.  I believe this is a Palo Verde.  Unlike the previously featured yellow trees (whose blossoms look like yellow cotton balls), these trees are everywhere.  By the end of the day my contact lenses look like someone smeared Vaseline on them.  I think there's one more species of steenking yellow tree yet to bloom.

Saturday we did the Santa Cruz, to Rillito, to Mountain loop.  This is a round tailed ground squirrel next to the trail.  They, too, are everywhere.  This year has just brought a bumper crop of them in Tucson.  They're dumb, they run out on to the trail, freeze, and then run back into your path.  A few years ago we came upon a pair of them running down the trail dragging a dead snake between the two of them.  That would have been a great picture to get.

Look at the color on those blossoms.  They practically glow in the sun.

A very attractive church on the route home.

I believe this is an agave, unless it's a yucca.  Look at the flower spike.  The blossoms are just spectacular.

So, you wonder, where is the aggravation?   On March 8, 2013 Jim bought a Garmin FR70 heart rate monitor.  It was not inexpensive.  Today we took it in for a new battery, and it was returned to us flashing AVB2.100.  The product forums for this HRM tell is it's an unrecoverable error, and it is not unknown to Garmin.  REI won't take it back because we are 20 days outside of their one year return window.  Garmin will "fix it" (how do you fix a solid state device?) for $89 plus shipping.  So, we are peeved, aggrieved and annoyed.  I bought the women's version in June of last year, and I believe I'm going to return it before the battery dies. 
It's always interesting to me how businesses do not pay attention to social media.  There are many people with keyboards who have plenty of time to voice their opinions on products. 

In other, happier news, today I was again able to ride the vexing hill on Anklam in my middle chain ring today and I felt pretty good in the climbs.  Progress is being made.