9 red Starts

First Today: …. Well like all days with my blog, I start with 9 red starts. What is a Red start you ask? It is the Html code for my red subject at the start of each paragraph. This is one red start <span style=”color:red;”><strong><em>:</em></strong></span> ( Note the HTML code is not red ) So when I want to start a new paragraph/subject I just put it before the  :    I don’t use 9 most days but when I get done blogging I just delete the rest.  I don’t type these in each time, I have them stored in my Clipboard manager ( Ditto) so I just place my cruiser at the top of the page and select it in Ditto and bang, I have 9 red starts 🙂   Oh, I do know that you can use the text color option in WordPress to do this, but …. this way I get it red,  bold and italicized all at once, as you can see from the HTML code. All I have to do, is type in my subject and start my paragraph.

Pictures: One spring day many years ago back in KY.
Dog Wood Trees, one red and one white.

Apple bloom.

Stretching and exercise: I did do a little stretching today but not enough and as far as exercise goes, I’ll call the bit of work I did this morning exercise.

Windows 10: Yep it is coming, well mid to late next year anyways. Sounds like they are making some changes for the better, but we’ll see.

Night folks.

More Petroglyphs

Relaxing and paying bills: Today I am in the “Just Chilling” mode, enjoying my days off, seeing as I did my little bit of chores yesterday leaving me litle to do today. I did get around to paying off all my monthly bill this morning and now I am poor yet again, LOL.

Exercise: I did walk for two miles and added a little stretching so that will do for the old dude today, I feel good 😉 Well, good enough anyways, the knees are just a bit fusses but I was able to do my two miles. I would have went for a bigger walk if the knees would have went for it, but not today. Maybe my next days off.

Pictures: More Petroglyphs.
This one give me trouble with shadows from near by trees.

Night folks.

Trip to the city

City: I took a trip to the city today and messed around for a while, did a few chores and I am now chilling out on my day off.

Pictures: A couple more shots from my walk the other day. By the way, for any that may want to know more about the walk I keep refer to, it starts at mile marker 35 on highway 117 and is called the Narrows Rim Trail. Here is a link with some info about the area.

This first picture was taken from the over look where the trail ends. You can see the La Ventana Arch form this over look, as seem in my last post.

Exercise: Short walk today and I added a little stretching. I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 2.05mi, time: 43:00, pace: 20:57min/mi, speed: 2.86mi/h.

Night folks

More Orientation today

More Orientation : Still more to know about, yesterdays stuff, was stuff that I knew about already but today ….. I’m not sure what is coming. Should be interesting, we’ll see.

Update; I guess, I am orientated 🙂 Not much more added to my list of stuff to do, but lots I can do on days I want to step up and I’ll have a few of those.

Exercise: I got early this morning for a fast walk before my day gets started, I walked somewhere around two miles. I have been slipping on my stretching again, so that is something I will have to get caught up on soon.
Tomorrow’s exercise will be the nature walk with the ranger and group. It will be a very slow walk but fairly long.

Bird: Here is another shot of the Rock Wren, the sun was very hash so the lighting is not good but I did the best I could with it in Photoshop. Click for a bigger picture.

For the bird of the week Another Robin.

The day has gone by fast.

Night folks

First stop

Storrie Lake: My time here is near over and I have really enjoyed my first time as a volunteer. The staff that I worked with where all super supportive, which makes for a great work environment. I don’t know whether or not I will ever volunteer at a state park again, but I will say I am glad I did this summer.

Computers: Today I am backing-up my Desktop computer and transferring files and folders. I did a full image back-up and copy all Documents and Music over to the laptop.

Pictures: Here is a rainbow in the desert somewhere near Deming, NM.

Here is a shot looking at Deming, NM from the top of the Florida Mountains. Yes another mountain I climbed 🙂

La Ventana Arch/ Which is located in the area of El Malpais National Monument This is where I will be stopping first, after leaving here. Well, I will be parking about 5 miles from the arch, a good bike ride 🙂
By the way, if you ever get in the area around Grants, NM. take Highway 117 south for about 10 miles or so to see this area. Well worth seeing, beautiful mountains on one side of the road and miles of lava fields on the other, a absolute beautiful contrast of landscapes.

Exercise: Yes, I got to that today, with about 6 miles on the bike and a little stretching.

Tomorrow : Tomorrow will be a day of chores with getting everything ready to go. Laundry is first on the list and then it will be doing things around the RV and turning in all my tools and such. Looks like Wednesdays morning will be the day for traveling, I look forward to it 🙂

Night folks

Rescue Mission

Birds: More Gold Finches.

Rescue Mission : One of the other host found a Canada Goose that had both legs wrap tightly with fishing line. The Ranger, the other Host and I caught it ( I think we where lucky to catch it) and cut the line away. It would have surely lost it’s legs if we had not done that, hopefully it’ll do well now. Fishing people, please be careful with you line.

Weather : It has been overcast and we have had some rain but still not near as much as needed.

Exercise: I rode the bike a good hard 6 miles this morning and I ride more later today and maybe get in a good stretch.

Update; Stretch done.

Night folks

Little ride

Today: It is early in the morning and I’m debating what I’m going to get into today, if anything. I’ve had my breakfast and have decide not to ride the bike today, the wind is up a little already, so if there is any exercise today it will a walk. Soooo, I think I’ll fire the computer up and see how much money I don’t have in my bank account and that will help me decide to keep whatever I do today small 😦 I can not tell a lie, this economy is kicking my backside on this purely fixed income I have 😦
Okay, bank accounts checked, maybe I can make it to the city for a little while today 😉 , can’t stay to long but maybe I can drive though, LOL! Okay it’s not that bad, but it feels like sometimes 😯

City update; Okay I enjoyed getting out for a little while and running the roads. I got some water for the RV and a few food items.

Walk and stretch: After getting back from Lake Havasu I did a little stretching and took me a walk. I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 4.06mi, time: 01:15:29, pace: 18:36min/mi, speed: 3.23mi/h.
http://mapmywalk.com/workout/517837331

Weather: Got to do a line or two on the weather. It is windy and dusty, and that is how this time of year is here in the wild west. Not complaining, this may have been the best winter I have ever had anywhere, weather wise.

Night folks

Leave only foot prints

Weight 184.6: The way things have been going, tomorrow I’ll be 188! Guess I need to work on that today 😛 The more I think about food the more I want to eat. I will behave, I will behave, I will behave, LOL.

Weather: Wow, looks like we’ll in for a overcast day and maybe some rain, felt a little sprinkling while out walking.

Walk: While out walking I keep running into chatters (other RVers who like to chat) which is okay to chat but it sure messes with the timing of my walks 😯 I may add another little walk to this one later and hopefully I’ll get to some stretching today, which I’ve not done for two days now 😦
I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 2.49mi, time: 01:05:03, pace: 26:07min/mi, speed: 2.30mi/h.
http://mapmywalk.com/workout/505940225

Update: I did get my stretching added in today.

A second small slow walk (I am moving slow today) I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 1.16mi, time: 29:43, pace: 25:38min/mi, speed: 2.34mi/h.
http://mapmywalk.com/workout/506022735

Clean up: Many of these desert sites are use by RVers and locals and some people are just messy and they leave a mess behind them. This area that I’m in seems particularly messy. It is my policy to always leave a area as good or better than I found it. So today was dedicated to cleaning up some of the mess around me. I put in about 3 hours, so my rent is paid 🙂 Today I clean up an old camp fire that had been there for a long time and was heap up with ashes and old rusty nails, what a mess. People who burn pallets and don’t clean up their nail mass, upset me a bit.

It is a joy to come out in the wide-open desert and boon-dock in my RV for free, and I want to do my part to keep it available for me and everybody else.

If you are a RVer, I highly recommend that you always leave an area as clean or cleaner then when you park there. Yes the fool before you may have left a mess and the fool after you may do the same but you will know that you did your part and you could be the one that saves it for everybody. You should never leave nothing in the desert but foot prints.

Night folks

Photo equipment

Weight 185.6: Go figure, walk my butt off yesterday and gained a pound 😦 Unfortunately things just don’t work that quick, we’ll keep working at it. There will be no walking today, the knees need the rest for sure. I will take a couple of rounds of anti-inflammatory pills today ( over-the-counter ibuprofen ) and ice them a little. They did a fine job yesterday and deserve a little pampering.

Blythe CA: I was off to Blythe this morning to do a little shopping and get out and about for a bit. I picked up water as usual while I was out, along with a few food items.

Stretching: At least I can do just a little stretching today, even though I’m not exercising.

Photographic: Yesterday I posted a older picture of a Robin and I notice that I like the image better than most I have taken of late. So I decided to look at the Exif data of the image and it was one I took with only the 300mm lens that I have had for years. I have not had the 1.4 extender off the 300mm lens for a long time because I like the extra reach that I get with it, but when comparing images …… it causes a fair amount of image quality loss. I have a 400mm lens but it don’t have the I.S. ( image stabilizer ) and at that length, I need the I.S. Makes me wish I had one of the big boys, like maybe a 600mm L f/4 with I.S. 😛 LOL. Unfortunately that’s not gonna happen and if you look up the cost you’ll see why. But I can and have, gotten some fine shots with the equipment that I have, I just have to work at it a little harder. Something I have not done a lot with of late, maybe a like of motivation. Birds is the thing I like photographing and I have to have an area that works for that. Mind you, there are birds everywhere one goes but some places work for me and others don’t. Maybe a good spot and the motivation will both come together soon 🙂

Last week’s workout totals:
WORKOUT SUMMARY for 02/17/2014 – 02/23/2014
6 workouts
5 routes
28.3 miles
9.9 hours
3,224 kCal burned

Night folks

Writers

Weight: 186.4 😦

Walk: I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 3.02mi, time: 01:02:41, pace: 20:47min/mi, speed: 2.89mi/h.
http://mapmywalk.com/workout/487032193 Added a minimum amount of stretching.

Writers: One thing I’m not is a writer, but oddly enough, I do enjoy reading the blog of a good writer. Perhaps it is because the skill evades me that I notice the skillful writing of others and enjoy it when I see it in their blogs. If you where to ask me about a blog I like” what makes that writer good? ” I could not begin to tell you. I just know that sometimes when I am reading I just get pulled in to what the author is conveying and seeing as I’m not a heavy reader either, the subject must kind of pop out at me in a interesting way. I have read a few books, papers and other things that do much as I do and just kind of ramble on nonsensical, and I have read many things that bore me to tears with prolong descriptions of scene setting that had little to do with the plot of the story. To me it is important that the writer gets to the point without using a thousand words just for something to write. For example, I use to read mystery and cowboy novels when I was a kid and I would often find myself skipping over the very descriptive parts of the book. Things like two cowboys having a showdown gunfight and the author is setting the scene and goes on and on about how the two of them where dressed. I know that sometimes it is important to set scenes but if I know there is going to be a fight, I mostly want to know who won. However I sometimes find writers that have just the right amount of descriptions of the situation and of the action. The point being, I find some blogs out here in the cyber-world that do have really skillful writers and I am envious of their skills.
For me writing is kind of like work if I really want to convey a point, I must give it some thought, while others seen to be able to just jot it down. Lucky for me I don’t have a lot of “points” LOL! This way I can keep writing fun for myself and if I develop skills along the way fine and if not, it can still be fun.

Weather: The morning has been mostly sunny but this afternoon there is just a little clouds showing up, but still the temperature is fine.

Birds: I have not gotten any in front of my lens lately but today a couple of Verdin came by and while out walking I heard and seen a woodpecker. Not sure which one it was. Lots of Anna’s and Costa Hummers.

Night folks