A/C, Hiking and Knees

I had my first quote for an air conditioner installation in my condo. I wasn't totally shocked, but until I get a second estimate, I won't know if the price is unreasonable. After the estimator left, I hiked Iron Mt. with the intent to hurt my knees because I have an appointment tomorrow with a physical therapist who hopefully can help me with my knee pain. I wanted to walk into his office and say "my knees hurt here". However, my knees don't really hurt at this time. But I know after hiking down a mountain like San Jacinto, they would be. The Mt. Whitney hike is coming up quick, and I feel I have much more training and conditioning before I'll be ready.

Edit:

I had my appointment and the doctor said I have no damage to my knees! He's starting me on physical therapy that will strengthen the correct leg muscles, resulting in less pain when I'm hiking.

Memorial Day Bike Ride

As planned, I went for a bike ride this Memorial Day. In the past, I've driving my bike down towards the beach and then ridden along the boardwalk. However, it gets so crowded I can't enjoy my ride. So I this year I rode from my house up to and along the road that passes by the Mimamar Marine Air Station. As I was peddling, I remembered that a bicyclist was killed by a careless drive here a few years ago. Shortly after, I came across this memorial in his honor. I had forgotten that he was a Marine, so the memorial, with the American and Marine flags had extra meaning today. I worry about being hit by a car all the time, and the path I took today takes me over three major freeways, where there are on and off ramps where drivers speed by, not necessarily watching for bike riders like me. I, of course, got home safely and enjoyed my ride, plus it was a great workout for my legs that are still sore from my Saturday morning hike.

Mt. Woodson Hike

Woke up early on a Saturday morning for a hike up Mt. Woodson. The sun came out once the May grey burned off and it turned into a day for a hike, until on the way down one of us hikers had a fall. She was able to walk, but another group of hikers who were walking down ended up telling the rangers at the lake and they drove up in a quad-runner and gave her a ride down. She is doing fine now.

Luggage Almost Home

My luggage called to let me know it will be home soon. All is well.

I have my missing bag :-)

Last on the Airplane

Well, I made it home from Key West last night, but just barely. I left KW on an earlier flight than scheduled, and once I arrived in Miami, I saw my flight to Dallas was delayed a few hours. When I finally got an American Airlines representative to talk to me, I found out that all flights in and out of Dallas were delayed several hours due to weather, and the weather was getting worse. They were starting to tell passengers to book a hotel for the night - not something I wanted to do. So after thinking about how to get home, I decided to see if I could get a flight to Los Angeles. The ticket agent said she could get me on the next flight, but I'd have to run because it was boarding in ten minutes, and the gate was 20 minutes away. She also got me a seat on a flight from LA to San Diego. So I jogged/walked fast from one end of the airport to the other and arrived at the gate before they started boarding. Once on the plane, I was lucky enough not to have a center seat! Flying over Texas, I saw the storms causing delays, with flashes of lightening everywhere. When we landed at LA, I rushed off the plane to catch the shuttle to the commuter terminal. Once there, I looked at the departing flights and mine was not listed! The agent took my boarding pass, and with a perplexed look on his face, he typed about a thousand characters into the keyboard and finally said he'd put me on standby for the flight leaving now. I was number 15 on the list, and all but two people made it on - me not one. So I was put on standby for the next and last flight to SD, where I was number six. My name was the last called and I was the last passenger on the plane. So I arrived in San Diego at 11:15PM, however, my one checked bag was somewhere between Miami and Dallas. I'm still waiting for the phone call this morning telling me my bag is on the way. I just saw on the news that flights were delayed into SD due to a software error at an air traffic control center. There is nothing important in my bag, but I'd like to get out of the house sometime soon.

Giant Chicken

Saw this driving to work each morning. Stopped to take picture this morning. Chickens run wild on the island of Key West.

Horse Head

Plenty of photo ops at breakfast.

They Might Be Giants in Concert

Last night my sister and I saw They Might be Giants at the Belly Up tavern. It's been over two years since I've seem Them play live. This was a "secret" concert, I guess they were warming up for their upcoming shows in support of Their new album. Like all bands, They played many songs from Their new album, which was just released only on itunes, so I doubt many people, including me, knew any of these songs. The audience, which was rather tame compared to audiences in past shows, clapped politely after each of the new songs, but really wanted to hear all the classics. Luckily, They played most of Their biggest hits, some not until the the first or second encore. With so many songs in Their library, it would be impossible for Them to play everybody's favorite. I was hoping for at least one tune from No!, Their so-called children's album. We stood in the back of the packed hall, with a good view of the stage, until a man taller than me stood in front of us. How dare he! No one is allowed to be taller than me! Luckily he moved in front of someone else, leaving just me being the one blocking the views of others. Overall, it was an enjoyable concert, even though I'm still recovering from a bad sore throat, which kept me from singing along.

I must mention the opening act, Let's Go Sailing. TMBGs always find an interesting but unknown group to open Their shows. This band played technically sound music, with a lead singing who had a good voice, but their music was soft, not quite boring, but it didn't exactly get the audience going, as their was lots of chatter during their performance.

Now I'm relaxing, trying to get healthy before flying to Key West tomorrow. I don't want to be sick while sitting on a plane all day. I've already turned down an offer to go to another street fair in Little Italy, and will probably turn down a chance to go hiking this afternoon. No, instead I'm watching TV, at one point I was watching The Weather Channel because there was nothing better to watch this morning. How pathetic! The Padres play in an hour, so that'll kill three hours of the day.

Cats, Sunsets and Mountains

Another sunset photo. It's funny, in the desert, where it is so dry and hot, temperature is relative. At night it feels cold, but the temperature is still in the 80s.



The cat is either scared because some person is trying to take her picture or she is worried about the coyotes on the other side of the wall that are looking for their dinner.

A view of Desert Hot Springs and Mt. San Jacinto taking during our hike in the hills. My Mt. Whitney hiking group plans to hike to the top of this mountain from the tram this year. It is still a difficult hike and all of it is at altitude.

Not Quite to Joshua Tree

Well, we almost made it to Joshua Tree National Park. After a night of drinking and fun, nobody was in the mood to drive to the park and hike. Luckily, the park lies just one mile from my friend's house in Desert Hot Springs. So we jumped over his back fence and started hiking. We followed various man-made and perhaps coyote trails up the hills. Each time we got to a peak, there was yet another peak ahead. I brought my GPS so I could see where we were in relation to the park boundary. At one point the GPS said we were 800ft away. So we hiked what we thought was 800ft to the next peak, and the GPS still said 800ft to go. By this time we were getting tired, as the trails led straight up the steep hills. So we turned around and re-traced our steps back to the house where I jumped into the pool and was instantly refreshed. The house lies at 1400 feet above sea level, and the highest point of our hike was at 2300 feet. So it was a decent workout and my legs feel sore today.

Weekend Change of Plans

First I was thinking of driving to Vegas to visit a friend. Then I planned on staying home and going for a local hike on Saturday. Now I have plans to spend the weekend in Desert Hot Springs, with a trip to Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday. Yes, it will be hot, but I will bring plenty of water and sun screen. I might even get rid of my farmers tan. Hopefully we'll go on a nice hike Saturday, so I can continue my training. I just went on my first after-work bike ride in a long time. Back in the 90's I used to ride my bike almost every day after work. I'd like to get back into that routine once again.

Air Conditioners

Well, I guess since I've scheduled an estimate for installing an air conditioner in my condo, one can assume that I've decided to not to buy a house but instead stay where I'm at for, at least one more year. Not being able to install an AC was my motivating factor to move. It is only May and already it is heating up to 85 degrees inside my home, so I hope to have the AC installed by June. Then I'll be forced to think about some remodeling once again, such as replacing the carpet with hard-wood floors or tile. Then comes the kitchen and bathroom upgrades. This is exactly why I wanted to buy a newer home. Oh well. I just keep thinking, what would my dad suggest? He'd say, keep your condo and upgrade it.

Final Exercise of the Weekend

I finished my weekend of exercising by hiking Iron Mt. I brought more water this time, so I had some leftover when I finished. The round trip took 1:45, with 5 minutes at the top that might be a record time for me. Parents were grabbing their children out of my path as I blazed passed everyone on the way down. I brought my better camera hoping to get good photos on this clear day. I could see the Pacific Ocean all the way to the horizon, but I couldn't get a good picture because the sun was low in the sky, so my best photo was taken looking southeast towards what I think is San Vecente Reservoir.

Resurfaced Pool

My brother's newly resurfaced pool. Can't swim in it yet, it only has acid in it - no chlorine. It was a nice day there today, with flowers blooming and birds flying around everywhere. There are advantanges of living in a house with a yard as opposed to a condo. I never spend any time at all outside on my patios. I was planning on selling my condo and buying a house, but I found out last week that I can have an air conditioner installed. The extreemly hot summers the last few years were my motivating factor to move, so now I have to rethink my moving plans.

Fifth of May

I could go out and drink Mexican beer any day of the week, so I'm happy just to stay home and drink a few brewskies. And after a 45 minute bike ride this morning and a weight-lifting workout this afternoon, I deserve a beer. Between less beer drinking and more exercising, I've lost weight and now all my pants are too loose around the waist. So today I ended up at Nordstoms and found the hard-to-find size of 34x36. I don't buy much at Nordstoms, as they tend to be more expensive, but they do have really good service and their salespeople are all very helpful and friendly. Add a pack of socks at Sears and a shirt at Mervyn's and I've bought more new clothes in one day than I have all year. A new pair of shoes will complete my shopping spree if I can find the ones I want on sale tomorrow.

Mackeson XXX Stout

Last weekend I had a craving for a variety of new beers, so I bought a beers-of-the-world pack at Bev'n'more. This beer is a triple stout in a single bottle! It tastes like a strong stout, but I prefer Stone or Karl Strauss. I'm not sure where it is brewed, it says "Brewed and bottled under the strict supervision of Whitebread's brewmasters, Whitebred PLC., London, England by the Whitebread Beer Company, Cincinnati, OH, USA." So, it's an English beer brewed in America? Darn globalization! I'll have to demonstrate at the next G8 Economic Summit :-) I want my imported beers brewed in their country of origin!

Little Italy Art Fair

I'm not sure what I took a photo of, but it looks artsy. I spent Sunday afternoon in Little Italy at an ait fair. Actually, I spent most of my time in bars drinking beer. It was cloudy outside, so I didn't feel like I was missing a nice day. I made my first trip to the Waterfront Bar and Grill, which claims to be the oldest tavern in San Diego. A good selection of not-too-expensive beer was a plus.