Windy and Cold

Yep, worst snowbird season yet.  As Lisa reminded me, 2012/2013 wasn't great, but I think this is worse.  It rained pigs and chickens all last night.  Today was extremely annoying; really windy and cold.  We covered all the tender plants this afternoon.  I would like my snowbird rebate now. 

However, we did have a pretty decent sunset.

Weather and Random Stuff

This was much of yesterday.  It rained!  In February.  Actually, it has been known to snow in February.  We came down to look at real estate in 2006 (I think) and it snowed and it was really cold.  Tucson has zero implements to deal with snow.  The entire city pretty much shut down.

Later the sun came out and lit up the palm trees.  I love seeing that.

There is an ocotillo on the other side of the wall.  It looks dead, doesn't it.  It'll come back to life, grow leaves and bloom before long.  There is a hummingbird sitting at the top.  There was a lot of zoom being used on the point and shoot so he's pretty indistinct.  I'm not sure if it's an Annas or not.

Here are a couple of random photos from Tucson.  There is a style of bicycle racing that is done on a track.  It's a sprinter's event, short bursts of high intensity effort are required.  To win, you need to get your opponent in front of you, so that you can draft (ride in his slip stream) and save energy.  Then you come from behind at the line and win.  To do this, everyone must be able to balance, un-moving, on their bikes on a steeply sloped oval track.  This is called a track stand.   Eventually someone will go, and generally the guy who is drafting wins.  This person was seen in Tucson, doing a perfect track stand.  He's not wobbling, or moving back and forth, he's just motionless.  It was a thing of beauty.

This just tickles me.   Look at the bottom sign.  Who doesn't want to take up knife fighting?  Sign me up!

This is what they woke up to in Seattle today.  They got six inches.  People on Twitter have been bashing Seattle's inability to drive in snow all day.  What they forget is that it rarely snows in Puget Sound.  There are no fleets of plows and sanding trucks.  Generally they do some de-icing of the bridges, but there's no concerted effort like there is in Chicago.  Plus, the area was carved by glaciers.  It's not just hilly, it's steep, like 12 to 15% grades in places.  Getting off of Queen Anne Hill is just harrowing in these conditions. 

Our rain is supposed to stop today.  However, Wednesday it's supposed to go down to 29 which means we'll be covering the non-natives and the new lemon tree.  I think this is going on record as the worst winter (that we have been here) ever.

The Golden Gate Trail

Tuesday we hiked up the trail from our house that goes up to a saddle where you can look across the scenery.  Jim wanted to see where the Golden Gate trail went.  It branches off from the saddle. We were there, where the pin is. 

Looking at the map, notice where the yellow trail (Yetman) intersects with the burgundy trail (Sarasota).  That's the general area we're scouting trails to from the house.  If that sentence makes no sense, see the previous post.  It's interesting how many trails are not on this map.  Anyway, we could see the intersection as we continued up on the trail to the saddle.

The brittle bush is in bloom.  Those are the yellow flowers.  It's everywhere.

Still on the Golden Gate Trail.  Looking down you can see the road that goes over Gates Pass.  We used to ride that on our bikes.  It's really steep, and one must have faith that the cars you're holding up won't kill you.

There is the parking lot for the Yetman trail head.  It's not very big, and has been made even smaller by an RV parked there.  They're supposed to use the pullouts down the hill.  Bad RV!  After a little longer, we turned around.  I think next time we're going to park down there and come up to the Golden Gate trail from there.  It's a lot closer than the house.  Rumor has it that the trail goes down to a pull out, but we'll have to investigate that further.

Today we parked at the ball fields and rode north.  We pulled in to St. Phillip's Plaza to look for the Pedego electric bike rental store.  We couldn't find it, maybe next time.  They're right off the Rillito trail, and I'll bet they're renting them to people who are going to take them out on the trail.  Motors are forbidden on the trail, new signs are up on the subject.

It's a pretty shopping area.  That building houses a modern Mexican restaurant, Reforma, with tequila and mescal also written on the building.  There are a bunch of bars and restaurants there.

Big tree under a blue sky.

This was last night's sunset. 

Rain is in the forecast, with cooler temperatures.  However, we're not dressing like this!

HIking Towards John Krein

Ho hum, another boring route report.  We've spent some time looking for a shorter route going towards the John Krein trail that doesn't involve an unpleasant slog around the north west end of First Ridge.  We found the far end the other day, but didn't walk it back all the way to the house. We're still a little soft on what happens in the middle, but here's the start from the house.

There are the Three Wise Men.  When they become visible, look for a turn off the trail towards Little Cat mountain.

The trail.  It looks like just about every other trail.  Notice the saguaro in the distance.

Here is the distant saguaro, with distinctive markings.

Somewhere, out there, is a very cool rock.  I like the circular rings on it.  Jim wouldn't haul it back to the house for me. 

There will be more route finding, which I will probably add here.
 

Seen by a Golf Course

Today was a glorious day.  No big wind, and it was warm.  We took the bikes up the Loop bike trail and it was good.  Coming back we saw this guy.

He was very aware of us, but stalked down the fence line with no concern for the humans.

He's a bobcat.  They're nocturnal, so seeing one in broad daylight is unusual. It was really cool.

Here are two more photos I swiped from the internet some time ago.  One does wonder how he got on top of the saguaro without severe damage to his feet.

May I Please Vent?

In mid-November, Jim aggravated his right Achilles tendon.  We went to the walk in clinic at Tucson Orthopedic Institute.  Their diagnosis was an -itis and the treatment was wear a boot for a month.  So that is what Jim did.  He got the first boot at Tucson Orthopedic.  Since he'd be wearing it except in the shower, we wanted a second boot.  It's amazing how much dirt and mung they collect.

Of course, we went out to Amazon.  We bought this for $53.63.  It's the exact same model as the one that was dispensed at TOI.  The paper work called out this exact model. 

Yesterday we got the charges from Medicare.  They charged $499 for the same boot.  It does have a TOI label sewn on it, but it's the same boot.  $499 for a $53 dollar boot.  Maybe this is why health care costs so much in this country.

I bring this to your attention so that if you are under-insured and need some sort of medical device and it's not an immediate need, perhaps you'd like to check Amazon first before getting ripped off.


One of the worst things about wearing a boot is the leg length imbalance.  After a month, it's really a pain.  We didn't know about this until yesterday.  If you find yourself in a boot, order this.

The entire medical/pharmaceutical complex is a giant soul-less taker of money.  One of the news programs had a segment on young Type 1 diabetics going to Mexico for insulin, they can't afford it in the US.  Insulin hasn't changed in decades, yet every year the price goes up.  It's pure price gouging, same for the Epi Pens.

Jim's Achilles is good.  We're back on the bike/hike program.