Weeks & Weekends
Jun. 23rd, 2013 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aIt's been a tough week and a half or so. K. got some medical news that has been requiring lots more tests and specialists, and so we're on pins and needles around here, and things are very stressful. It's put a bit of a damper on life.
So yesterday I made plans for a totally frivolous bike ride. No computers to lug with me, no work to be done -- just me, my bike, and the sunshine. I was really unsure where to go -- I really wanted to go somewhere new that I hadn't seen before, but I didn't want it to be a big thing -- and then as I was getting ready to go I found my maps of Wildcat Canyon, and I realized that was it.
I'd been sort of close to Wildcat Canyon Park once before. It's just north of Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills. On one of our trips up to Tilden, K. and I walked all around the Tilden Nature Area and near Jewel Lake we saw this path leading to Wildcat Canyon Park. It beckoned to me even then, this wide dirt path curving and twisting, leading off into the hills. It's been in the back of my mind ever since.
So Saturday after lunch with K. I headed up to Tilden. It's always a tough ride up there, so I tried an alternate path this time (Euclid Ave.), which was steeper at parts but flatter for the last bit. Dunno if I like it more or less. I was certainly way more tired halfway up and way less tired at the top. Anywho, I got up to Tilden, then circled around the "Loop Trail", which I've walked before, to get over to the path to Wildcat Canyon.
And then I rode and it was wonderful. The trail is hard-packed dirt that's pretty bumpy. It's also got some ups and downs. After a bit I got into the swing of things and was really motoring along the path. There were lush trees off to the left, due to a river that runs through Wildcat Canyon and into Tilden, and off to the right everything was brown, dried scrub. It's actually an environment that I saw a lot in San Jose where I grew up, but I don't see as much here in the hills above Berkeley and Oakland.
It all came together to just be an awesome ride, thanks to the joy of the trail and the nostalgic memories that the landscape brought me. It made me feel young again, and was totally what I needed.
Today's been a writing and editing day. Some work on Designers & Dragons and some work on DnDClassics.com, which is typical. Designers & Dragons has really been dragging lately, because so much of the information I need for the '00s is embedded in podcasts, and they're unsearchable, mostly unindexed, and largely unscannable. The info-to-cruft ratio is also really poor when compared to the magazine articles, introductions, and press releases that were my prime information sources for previous decades. So, the new material in the '00s goes way too slowly. Sigh.
In other news, too many doc appointments for myself lately. (Not that I'm really one to talk with what's going on around here lately.) Last week was a follow-up for some blood tests, and my triglycerides are still too high. Sigh; I'm trying to do a better job of changing my diet. Tomorrow is my yearly followup at my neurologist for those anti-headache pills which unfortunately seem to be still necessary. At least I'll be clear of doc appointments for another 3 months after tomorrow, hopefully.
I've fortunately got another free weekend next weekend, which is good because I'll probably need some continued relaxation.
So yesterday I made plans for a totally frivolous bike ride. No computers to lug with me, no work to be done -- just me, my bike, and the sunshine. I was really unsure where to go -- I really wanted to go somewhere new that I hadn't seen before, but I didn't want it to be a big thing -- and then as I was getting ready to go I found my maps of Wildcat Canyon, and I realized that was it.
I'd been sort of close to Wildcat Canyon Park once before. It's just north of Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills. On one of our trips up to Tilden, K. and I walked all around the Tilden Nature Area and near Jewel Lake we saw this path leading to Wildcat Canyon Park. It beckoned to me even then, this wide dirt path curving and twisting, leading off into the hills. It's been in the back of my mind ever since.
So Saturday after lunch with K. I headed up to Tilden. It's always a tough ride up there, so I tried an alternate path this time (Euclid Ave.), which was steeper at parts but flatter for the last bit. Dunno if I like it more or less. I was certainly way more tired halfway up and way less tired at the top. Anywho, I got up to Tilden, then circled around the "Loop Trail", which I've walked before, to get over to the path to Wildcat Canyon.
And then I rode and it was wonderful. The trail is hard-packed dirt that's pretty bumpy. It's also got some ups and downs. After a bit I got into the swing of things and was really motoring along the path. There were lush trees off to the left, due to a river that runs through Wildcat Canyon and into Tilden, and off to the right everything was brown, dried scrub. It's actually an environment that I saw a lot in San Jose where I grew up, but I don't see as much here in the hills above Berkeley and Oakland.
It all came together to just be an awesome ride, thanks to the joy of the trail and the nostalgic memories that the landscape brought me. It made me feel young again, and was totally what I needed.
Today's been a writing and editing day. Some work on Designers & Dragons and some work on DnDClassics.com, which is typical. Designers & Dragons has really been dragging lately, because so much of the information I need for the '00s is embedded in podcasts, and they're unsearchable, mostly unindexed, and largely unscannable. The info-to-cruft ratio is also really poor when compared to the magazine articles, introductions, and press releases that were my prime information sources for previous decades. So, the new material in the '00s goes way too slowly. Sigh.
In other news, too many doc appointments for myself lately. (Not that I'm really one to talk with what's going on around here lately.) Last week was a follow-up for some blood tests, and my triglycerides are still too high. Sigh; I'm trying to do a better job of changing my diet. Tomorrow is my yearly followup at my neurologist for those anti-headache pills which unfortunately seem to be still necessary. At least I'll be clear of doc appointments for another 3 months after tomorrow, hopefully.
I've fortunately got another free weekend next weekend, which is good because I'll probably need some continued relaxation.