Hike and 39 Years

Today was another picture postcard day.  As nice as the weather is, we're concerned about the amount of dead and dying cactus we're seeing out in the desert.  It really does need to rain.  However, not in the forecast.

Today was a hike day.  We're trying to get more weight bearing exercise, biking is of no use in bone maintenance.  It was a difficult hike.  I had forgotten how bad parts of it are.  Now I recall, my thigh muscles are also recalling this.  Here is Jim, slogging up the portion of the trail that we call the stair master.  This is actually from a few years ago.  It's a screen scrape of a previous post.  It's interesting to me that he's wearing the same blue hiking shirt.

That dip in the ridge line is where we used to hike to, but we're older now, and it's too far.  Today was enough.  Getting down the hill is brutal on the feet.

This cactus has experienced some trauma, I think. 

Coming back, we lost the trail.  I think we got too far to the right.  Anyway, we went through a wash, and realized we were not where we were supposed to be.  However, Golden Gate Mountain loomed over us and the trail that goes up to the saddle, so we went that way.  It was not all bad, it made the return a little shorter that it would have been on the planned route.  My feet were screaming by the time we were done.

This is an agave in the neighbor's yard.  Look at the size of that.  I didn't know they get that tall.

The bedrooms used to have carpet, most of the houses built in this time frame did.   Our old house in the neighborhood also had carpet in the living room, which I miss because it cuts down on noise.  Anyway, at some point it was replaced by laminate planks.  I think the installer was impaired that day, they did a terrible job.  They filled the gap between the ends of the planks and the threshold with plastic wood.  Over time it had cracked and started to come out.  So we dug it out today after receiving our backer rod from Amazon.  We got the quarter inch rod today, but the planks do not end in a straight line, so tomorrow the 3/8 inch should arrive for the short plank.  Then we will caulk the whole thing.  I hate caulking, it's very stressful.  That dark line is the gap that needs to be filled.

If I were not concerned about losing Social Security I would consider having the laminate floors replaced, and something done with the grout that has cracked between the floor and the wall in the primary bathroom.  If we're still here in four years and that man is gone, maybe then.

Happy Winter Solstice, the days start getting longer tomorrow.  Today was our 39th wedding anniversary.  I put a reminder on my phone, so we both remembered it.  We have been known to forget.