Pictures from outdoor exercise.
Options
Replies
-
Not scenic, but I think it's kind of funny. On the community trail, we have a fake stone wall. Its purpose seems to be to dissuade cars on the highway (just out of sight to the right past the wall) from driving over the embankment and squashing the walkers/bikers. To the left of the photo, on the side of the trail opposite the wall, is a pond, so all in all it would be a Bad Thing for the driver, too.
4 -
My wife and I did some landscape gardening today. This small section (about 12' x 4') was covered with grass... well, more weeds than grass but I digress... so we dug out the sod, leveled, installed three rose bushes and five hostas, then covered the area with cedar mulch. Pictures don't do it justice...
3 -
Well, I was just about to do some garden chores when a neighbor texted me and another neighbor if we wanted to do a little go-at-your-own-pace paddle trip from the next put-in upstream from our town down to the boat ramp about a half hour from our houses. So I put everything else aside and went paddling. Only about ten miles.
Yesterday was a canoe trip about ten miles from the next put-in upstream to the ramp right near my house. I took my ultralight and caught a few fish. I was tempted to take my "new" (1997 model) whitewater boat, but that would have been the wrong choice. The fast light boat was great.
No real rapids, but some shallow ledges, down logs, and a few other obstacles with unseasonably low water levels. I did surf two small waves. It's been so long I forgot.... sunscreen. Oops. Just the legs. I was covered everywhere else. I'm taking the day off Wednesday; I might try to get back out or else go dive.
2 -
We walked thru the Tulip Festival main gardens today. Pictures don't do it justice.
3 -
Drove my Chevy to the levee . . . no, wait: Rode my bike to the adaptive boat launch. It's at something called Esker Landing. It looks like this:
3 -
I've never seen an EZ Dock before. Neat idea, especially for someone learning the sport and uncomfortable launching & landing...
1 -
I've never seen an EZ Dock before. Neat idea, especially for someone learning the sport and uncomfortable launching & landing...
There's also that nice little "parking spot" bay to the upper left in the 2nd photo, which may be useful for people who have the mobility to step down into a boat, but benefit from getting in in a constrained space like that, rather than on the outer edge of a dock. It's not in my photos, but in the first photo, the walkway that enters the dock area from the left of the photo is the bottom chunk of a full wheelchair ramp, and the whole pathway from the parking lot is paved and of decent width for wheelchair access.
I've never seen someone launch there using the adaptive set-up, but have seen wheelchair users unloading in the parking lot, so I'm sure they do. The body of water is a long, narrow pond or lake, so one could get in a reasonably energetic paddle, though one would have to do circuits to get a bigger distance. On the map, looks like it might be about a mile long, but I can't see the whole length from the walk/bike paths.
I don't have a bike trailer for my canoes/kayak (not sure bike trailer's my jam anyway!), and if I were going to paddle one of those boats from cartop transport, I'd probably go to a bigger body of water locally . . . but I've thought about taking one of the boats over there someday just to explore the place.2 -
The wife and I took up golf recently. This one of the two courses we play for league play. We play a new course tomorrow that's gorgeous. Really tall pine trees, rare for Tucson.
2 -
The town I live in Texas has half a dozen golf courses... and I don't golf... Go figure. Maybe I should fix that?MikePfirrman wrote: »The wife and I took up golf recently. This one of the two courses we play for league play. We play a new course tomorrow that's gorgeous. Really tall pine trees, rare for Tucson.1 -
I worked a bit in the garden/yard today. Unintentional exercise. I filled the green waste cart and have buckets waiting for it to be emptied.
And, of course, I brought in some cut flowers.....
Three are steaming away right now.
3 -
The town I live in Texas has half a dozen golf courses... and I don't golf... Go figure. Maybe I should fix that?MikePfirrman wrote: »The wife and I took up golf recently. This one of the two courses we play for league play. We play a new course tomorrow that's gorgeous. Really tall pine trees, rare for Tucson.
My wife played one round of golf, years ago, like 30 years ago. She just turned 60 and has taken up golf. It's been fun to watch her. She grew up very poor and didn't ever get to play organized sports, though she's very athleticly gifted, so she's a natural golfer.
The only trick is getting her to practice. She's the Allen Iverson of golf. "Practice, what are we talking about, practice..." Except she needs practice a lot more than AI ever did.
We played 18 yesterday (first time ever 18 holes). With a newbie that doesn't like to practice, that can make for a very, very long day!2 -
I've played golf twice... once at a retirement party for a coworker who was an avid golfer... and once at a charity event. In both cases, it was 18 holes and, even playing "best ball", 18 holes was a long day.MikePfirrman wrote: »We played 18 yesterday (first time ever 18 holes). With a newbie that doesn't like to practice, that can make for a very, very long day!1 -
When I was about eight, my dad took me to Bobby Jones Golf Course to play a round. He thinks it was Piedmont Park, but even though I went with him when they had a course, I never swung clubs. Anyway, maybe on the fifth hole he asked how many strokes I had on that hole. I said, "Why would I want to count them?" He told me I was wise beyond my years.
Fast forward 30 years (or more) and he came to visit. We played a round of disc golf, and he was reminded of that previous time because he couldn't get those little pieces of plastic to go straight or far.
I don't remember the last time I played ball golf. In grad school, I lived for a while across the street from a fairway with a guy who grew up in that house. We used to take one or two clubs and just go walk a few holes. Shhhh....
My ex came to a dive club annual party one year. They had laser tag and mini golf. We played mini golf. She was scary. She wanted to smack the balls way too hard. We should have gone to a driving range so she could try that out. Never did.3 -
When I was about eight, my dad took me to Bobby Jones Golf Course to play a round. He thinks it was Piedmont Park, but even though I went with him when they had a course, I never swung clubs. Anyway, maybe on the fifth hole he asked how many strokes I had on that hole. I said, "Why would I want to count them?" He told me I was wise beyond my years.
Fast forward 30 years (or more) and he came to visit. We played a round of disc golf, and he was reminded of that previous time because he couldn't get those little pieces of plastic to go straight or far.
I don't remember the last time I played ball golf. In grad school, I lived for a while across the street from a fairway with a guy who grew up in that house. We used to take one or two clubs and just go walk a few holes. Shhhh....
My ex came to a dive club annual party one year. They had laser tag and mini golf. We played mini golf. She was scary. She wanted to smack the balls way too hard. We should have gone to a driving range so she could try that out. Never did.
It's funny you mention that. She (my wife) is an Aries. It's a minor miracle that we're happy and in love and have been married for 30 years. I'm a Scorpio (control freak) and she's as stubborn as a mule and doesn't like to ever told what to do (even if it's a helpful golf tip). She'll pull out a fairway driver 50 yards from a green (they go like 100 to 220 yards if you hit them correctly). I tried to gently suggest she had too much club on one hole. She disagreed and managed to put it 50 yards over the green.
This was from yesterday. It's a Robert Trent Jones designed course (one of the most famous golf course designers ever). Lovely course and it's public and reasonably priced. For 3 of us (my daughter went as well), with cart, was only $110 for 18 holes.
1 -
Yarn-bombed tree (crocheted tree cozy?) on my walk this morning. Presumably in honor of June LGBTQ+ Pride Month?
2 -
Well, I got no pictures, and I wasn't outside, but I did get some good activity.
Two hour-long dives. Each one was only to 26 feet max. To go deeper requires a jackhammer. And the exhibit is inside a building. Still... it was nice to hang out with the sharks, rockfish, and wolf eels. I'll be tired tomorrow. Did a bunch of scrubbing.3 -
The forecast was for 5-10 Kt winds with gusts to 20. It was much windier than that. It was extremely frustrating. Made it anyway; about 12 miles. Different bunch of folks. They were in fishing kayaks and even though they aren't as fast hulls, they could mostly keep up because the lower profile was out of the wind. If I really turned on the juice, I could keep far ahead. I sort of had to in order to keep the bow pointed downstream. If I let off, the boat would be at the mercy of the wind.
A lot less wind today. It would have been a much better day to go. I would have skipped it yesterday had I known the wind was coming even if I also had to skip today, too.
Brutal.
2 -
The forecast was for 5-10 Kt winds with gusts to 20. It was much windier than that. It was extremely frustrating. Made it anyway; about 12 miles. Different bunch of folks. They were in fishing kayaks and even though they aren't as fast hulls, they could mostly keep up because the lower profile was out of the wind. If I really turned on the juice, I could keep far ahead. I sort of had to in order to keep the bow pointed downstream. If I let off, the boat would be at the mercy of the wind.
A lot less wind today. It would have been a much better day to go. I would have skipped it yesterday had I known the wind was coming even if I also had to skip today, too.
Brutal.
That is a lovely canoe! My wife mentioned an interest in getting either kayaks or a canoe. One thing at a time...0 -
The forecast was for 5-10 Kt winds with gusts to 20. It was much windier than that. It was extremely frustrating. Made it anyway; about 12 miles. Different bunch of folks. They were in fishing kayaks and even though they aren't as fast hulls, they could mostly keep up because the lower profile was out of the wind. If I really turned on the juice, I could keep far ahead. I sort of had to in order to keep the bow pointed downstream. If I let off, the boat would be at the mercy of the wind.
A lot less wind today. It would have been a much better day to go. I would have skipped it yesterday had I known the wind was coming even if I also had to skip today, too.
Brutal.
That is a lovely canoe! My wife mentioned an interest in getting either kayaks or a canoe. One thing at a time...
It's a nicer canoe that I would have expected to buy, but it happened to be for sale for the right price, and I happened to be looking for something similar and had cash in hand. It's a Wenonah Encounter. Seventeen feet long and zero rocker. The boat I was looking for is a Prism; it's about six inches shorter and has lower sides. The Encounter does catch the wind for sure. It's only 38 pounds. I named it "Kev" since it's made of Aramid fiber (Kevlar).
The local Wenonah rep said there's only three reasons to own this boat:- You want to carry a LOT of gear for long trips
- You are an extraordinarily large example of a human
- You want a dry boat
I kind of like dry boats. I've taken it on mild class 2. I just have to make sure not to hit rocks. The previous owner put a hole in it and patched it. I'm sure I've put some more damage on the hull. It might be time to get it in the shop next winter.
It truly is a joy to paddle, but turns a lot more slowly than my whitewater canoe. And in the wind... it's a sail. If I was carrying more weight, I would have had more issues with the shallows this weekend, but the wind would have been less of an issue. For this boat I use a bent shaft paddle and paddle "Sit and switch" style. No J-strokes or Canadian strokes. Just point where you want to go and GO.
1 -
My wife and I did some landscape gardening today. This small section (about 12' x 4') was covered with grass... well, more weeds than grass but I digress... so we dug out the sod, leveled, installed three rose bushes and five hostas, then covered the area with cedar mulch. Pictures don't do it justice...
Updates on our wee garden... the roses have taken off like crazy!! I did it as a quote so you can see the difference...
3
