South Mountain Park has thousands of miles of trails. It's one of the largest municipal parks in the US.
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South Mountain Park has thousands of miles of trails. It's one of the largest municipal parks in the US.
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I'm out hiking early so I can be a little bit ready for the Canyon next week.
I'm in the South Mountain trails and the trailhead is three miles from my place. I need to get out here more often.
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Things that are irritating me today:
1. People who don't *&^%!~$# pay attention. I may be a bleeding heart most of the time, but I think our cushy comfortable society has let far too many incompetent people make it to adulthood. How some people have made it this far in life, let alone find their way out of their house in the morning, is beyond me.
I'm not talking about people with serious illnesses, physical or mental, I'm not that cruel. I'm talking about functional people who are unencumbered by the thought process.
2. The traffic lights along Camelback Road (where my office is). I have never hit more than one green light in a row. The lights are set up so you will hit EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT even if you are driving the speed limit. EVERY RED LIGHT! WTF ever happened to planning for traffic flow? I can drive down the busiest road in Tempe and the lights are timed for flow. Stupid Phoenix traffic engineers.
Can City of Phoenix get anything right? Oh - that gets me started on a whole host of other complaints but I don't want to get into zoning codes and tax incentives to keep empty lots empty. Grrr.
3. I bought a Toyota so I could have a low-maintenance car. So how come every time I go to the dealer for an oil change I have to pay hundreds of dollars to get my car back? Probably because I'm getting my oil change at a dealer. I'm starting to think all the money I sunk into the Silver Lemon wasn't that bad after all.
Mostly #3 is my today's irritant. The other two piss me off on a regular basis but I had to deal with them today so they moved to the top of the list.
EXCEPT MORE BABY ZOO ANIMALS!!!
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This illustrated walk through the US Capitol is a treat. If the drawings were in red pen I would swear this was M-----l's fine work and witty observations.
]]>So no kitties or baby squirrels fell in my lap yesterday, but my horoscope may have been right anyway about me getting something I wanted. Oh wait - haven't checked my Powerball ticket yet.
Please hold.
*hold music*
Nothing. Pleh. Oh well, now I just contributed money to Arizona's General Fund. Heaven knows it needs more cash.
Regardless, something happened work-related that would count, but I'm not going to get into it here. But today's horoscope said something about I hit a plateau, but it was really just the first peak to summit and there's more in store. Plus it's another 5-star day. Fantastic! I'm feeling pretty good.
I turned the heater on last night before going to bed. I'm glad I did. It kicks in when the inside temperature is 65 and it was going this morning when I woke up. Radio guy said it was 45 degrees at 6:30am. BRRR! I know I said this yesterday, but it was 100 a week or so ago.
I have a lot to do here at work and I'm pretty damn energized. So I need to get back to it.
Just a couple days of Rocktober left. Electric Six is a band I know nothing about, except Brother Steve gave me this CD one Christmas, don't even know when. I saw it when I was pawing through the stacks and thought I'd give it a listen. I recognize this song, but I think Brother Steve put it on the mp3 player he loaded up for me (and I rarely listen to because I never have time/opportunity).
I can't tell if they are metal, disco, dance, rock, etc. Every song is different and I'm not sure there even is a category for them. Which is probably why I think the songs are cool. Even the rough songs have a big dose of humor and/or irony. I'm not good at reviewing tunes, that's just my take on things.
On CuteOverload - a brand new Brown Swiss baby, still damp from birthing slime, freshly licked, front legs still bent up from being stuck in the womb those long nine months. Hoof tips are still soft, the white parts will harden up with exposure to air.
My guess is BSB is less than 30 minutes old. They usually try to get up within 15, depending on how aggressive Mommy is to get baby up. You know, that ol' prey v predator, need to keep a move on instinct.
With the umbilical cord hanging around like it is, I'm not going to guess if this is a boy or a girl. We usually check between the legs for the true gender signs.
Yay, cowz! Yay, Brown Swiss!
My horoscope says this is going to be a 5-out of-5 star day! w00t!
Something you wanted lands in your lap. This is a sign from the universe.
OOH! What can that possibly be?
I bought two lottery tickets as a hedge. A scratcher and a Powerball. Let's see what my scratcher has for me.
Please hold.
*scratch scratch scratch*
Well, pooh. I didn't win anything. I guess that wasn't what the Universe has in store. That means I still have the rest of the day to forward to. Powerball drawing isn't until later tonight, anyway. But since I actively bought a ticket, does that negate the passivity of something landing in my lap? Hmm.
Maybe it's something else. I'll just go along merrily through my day - tra la la la la! - and see what happens.
Here's my Rocktober tunage for today. I think it kind of fits. I saw The Cars in Toronto in 1987, Maple Leaf Gardens. Fun show, a bit too heavy on stage theatrics for my taste but it was still a blast.
Which isn't nearly as cool as the real thing.
The entire car collection wasn't on display but five Fords were out. Two old timers and then three from the 60s/70s - a Mustang, a Cobra and this race car. I'm sure some guy out there knows what this is exactly. I just knew it was pretty damn sweet.
The gentleman who owns this aircraft hangar is an heir to the Campbell's Soup fortune, a successful developer in his own right and the highest ranking Arizonan on the latest billionaires list. I haven't met him but his two partners sit on my organization's board and are all-around good guys.
It was a fun night, I did more work-related schmoozing than expected but that's fine. I'm never really off the clock when I'm out and about. One of my beloved board members (not one of the aforementioned guys) wondered what the hell I was doing there and I said I was helping out the organizer because we were supposed to have drinks tonight anyway. He laughed and said, "I didn't think you nonprofit types could afford the entry fee to these kinds of things."
I said, "Yeah, but we nonprofit types know how to do big things with very little. That's why you keep seeing me at all the good parties."
Then we talked about how he was on NPR's "All Things Considered" last night and that he turned the radio off because he hates hearing himself.
"If I turn on the radio and don't know it's me, I think 'Gee, that guy is really smart'. Then I realize it's me and I can't listen to it anymore."
He's a trip. I love my job and the people I get to interact with. And the parties. The parties rock.
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