One thing led to another

Early this morning, before breakfast, I decided to water the plants in the back yard. It was exceedingly hot yesterday and as it was up to 71 degrees at 8:00 AM when I got back inside, shows signs of being just as hot today. (But I already knew it was warm from the sweat I raised do the "other.")

While I was out there diligently watering, I noticed some obnoxious weeds growing over plants that were intentionally being grown. I plucked more than pulled but spent about an hour filling my green bin. While it looks better to me without those weeds, I fear it may have been too late for some of the plants they overtook. Unfortunately, the watering leading to weeding did not include my getting my gardening gloves. Some of those weeds had spines.

Part of my watering includes filling the bird bath. It doesn't appear to be used as much as it was before cats, BC. I did see a small bird using it the other day, more from the splashing of water than actually seeing a bird, which was my primary clue that the bird was small. I don't mind priming a hunting ground for the cats as I suspect the birds are faster. At least all that they've brought in so far have been snakes.

The above then led to my sitting down to write this, which further delayed breakfast, shower, ..., and the ton of other stuff I made a mental note of before I got up this morning. In fact, thinking about all those things was the primary reason I got up as additional sleep was out of the question.

Yesterday was a very good day. It was great to wake up in a campground again even though it was the first time I had done so alone. I now have a much longer list of the things that I need to make sure I take on future motorcycle camping trips and a much shorter list of things I won't be carrying the next time. I also was shown the light, repeatedly, on why it is not a good idea to camp near the bathrooms. Even though I didn't have a flashlight or lantern, there were frequent visitors to the bathrooms who were willing to share theirs for a moment or two, long enough to halt my progress into sleep. Of course, the progress was probably more affected by the latte I had had in Cambria with dinner. It was there I learned about Plasket Creek in the first place.

I've already written about the fellow motorcyclist I met but he ended up saving me $17. He had not read the camping instructions correctly and paid only $5 for his spot instead of the $22 he was supposed to pay, which I had. (The $5 fee was for a common area for hikers and bikers, pedal pushers not motorcyclists, although she would have allowed it.) Since the ranger didn't want to take the time to wake him up and collect the rest of the fee, she was heading into town for her day off, she refunded $17 to me since I was right there.

I intended to stop in at the Big Sur Lodge for breakfast but as I passed, the road looked very much under construction and the lodge looked very closed. I even toured Carmel but a breakfast place never jumped out at me. I was still looking for one when I decided to get gas in Watsonville. Again, I didn't see any. I also didn't see a way back onto Highway 1 at my debarking point. After five miles, I was back to my exit on Highway 1, which this time I wisely didn't take. (I never did get breakfast but had a good lunch at Chez Shea in Half Moon Bay.)

Then I was home. It was so hot, the cats thought they were back in Davis. As soon as I opened the cat door, they both scampered outside and mostly stayed there. From the odor emanating from their litter box, I don't blame them for not wanting to walk by it too frequently. Cleaning the litter box is one chore that doesn't lead to any other. All I want to do afterwards is take a shower. Hey, that sounds like a plan.

Plenty of vitamin D

Yesterday afternoon I went out to mow my back yard and decided that I didn't want all those broad leaf weeds, with their seeds, in my compost pile. I then proceeded to get my gardening gloves that Marilyn bought me one of the times we went to Sloat's Nursery, on Sloat Ave. across from the San Francisco Zoo, a weeding tool, and marched over most of my backyard lawn on my knees. After about two and one half hours, my green bin was about 2/3 full of noxious broad leaf weeds. I didn't even dig them all out as I still mowed the lawn, got cleaned up, ate, fed the cats, and still made it to Toastmasters. Ever since I saw the professionals mow the yard, I have been doing what they did, mowing it twice. First I go back and forth one way and then back and forth perpendicular to the previous direction. This mowing also required back and forth over one section diagonally to the previous two directions.

This morning I fertilized the fuchsias, filled the bird bath, put shredded newspaper over the grass clippings in the compost pile, and watered the plants, including the compost pile. As I was doing that, I noticed some more broadleaf weeds that I just had to pull. Again I limited myself to literally one handful as I had a variety of indoor tasks to complete and packing for my motorcycle trip south.

At one time I was going to go along the coast and camp in the Big Sur area but since the timing of my trip requires that I be down there on Tuesday, returning on Wednesday, and I want to get at least one day of visiting in, I'm now just planning on a leisurely one full day trip all the way there tomorrow, Saturday. This will be a closer simulation of my planned cross-country ride in June. It will also tell me whether or not I'm in shape to ride long distances or whether I still need to exercise more.

As I'm planning on exercising more anyway, whether I need to or not is moot. I am up to the third level of the Pushup Pro but am not yet doing the full number, unless I do two sessions. (Most often I only do one.)

Gas prices are shooting up around here again but I'm still going to ride my motorcycle. It gets around 35 miles to the gallon driving California Expressway speeds where the Prius gets around 48. While I don't get to listen to anything, I still have more fun on my motorcycle.

With all of my time outdoors yesterday, I got so much vitamin D that I had to put aloe gel on my face. I'm still taking vitamin D supplements with all my other supplements but probably should look into what getting too much vitamin D might do to me.

Someone sent me instructions for linking Twitter and Facebook as a way to post Spot "OK" location messages into Facebook. There is a technical problem with the Facebook application, which has so far prevented me from completing the steps. Once I can complete it, I intend to use the Spot more on local walks and other motorcycle trips besides the big one this summer.

This is as far as I got on the San Andreas and Crystal Springs trails on April 1st. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.5628,-122.397&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 I have some pictures posted on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008035&id=1288023430&l=308b96d1c6.

Well back to the preparing...