Beer, Bikes and Busted Plans

{1} Why is it the week I decide to avoid sugar is the week that...I go out to dinner with my brother (which I only do about once a month), my friend's band is playing at a bar in my neighborhood, the ladies at work get together for happy hour, I am meeting a friend for a birthday dinner (two times eating out in one week!) and it's Mother's Day Brunch. When it rain's it pours, I guess.

{2} I went to see my friend's band on Wednesday and I rode my bike to the show. I am no bike expert, let me tell you. I barely know how to shift gears. Why does it always seem like every time I shift it gets harder? It never gets easier, I swear! Downshift, upshift...either way, it keeps getting harder. So I was riding the bike back home when I shifted and the chain fell off and got tangled up in the round thingy, which I googled, and found out it's called a cassette. I had to walk the rest of the way home.

{3} I was supposed to go to a music festival this weekend, but then my friend flaked out so we decided to sell our tickets and I made other plans with other people for the weekend. But then nobody wanted to buy them and I've been placing ads on Craigslist and dealing with a lot of flaky people and I am getting annoyed. This is why I don't change plans; it gets aggravating, scrambling around at the last minute trying to coordinate things, changing plans with everybody, not knowing what your actual plans will be, and losing money on top of all of it.

{4} My roommate got a dog. That's really all I have to say about that. No really, it's cute; it's a puppy; it pooped on the floor today. What else is there to say, really?

{5} I have this race tomorrow with Broski. It will be his first 30k and his longest run ever! By the way, I think he's finally come to terms with the fact that the trail "half marathons" are not always 13.1 miles.

What's going on in your life? Any fun plans for the weekend? Do you know anything about bikes?

Random Rambles

Lately it's pretty much all Giants all the time around here. Sorry. In a week, we will have won and you won't have to hear about them for...5 more months. Actually there are a few other things going on in my six minute mind these days.

- (Spoiler Alert: Mom, don't read this part) Last night after work I went running out on the trails and it got dark a little earlier than I thought it would. I think it was partly due to the cloud cover and also due to the tree cover. So I was just finishing up my run up the last hill when I saw two pairs of eyes. You know how they reflect in the dark? Two pairs, maybe a foot or two off the ground, but it was hard to tell, as I was going up a hill. I clapped and shouted and made a fool of myself and at first I thought they were coming toward me (and I had a moment of "huh, what the heck am I going to do now?") but then they retreated. Up the hill. Where I needed to go. To go back around the other way, I would have had to go about 5 miles. To go up the hill, I would be back at the parking lot in about .2 miles. So I flapped my arms and clapped my hands some more and they finally went into the bushes. I took advantage of that to get the heck out of there! I could hear them in the bushes and for the entire rest of the way I kept checking behind me to make sure they weren't chasing me.

It was probably just a couple of deer.

Lesson learned. Maybe trail runs should be done a little bit earlier in the day. 

Mountain lion in Tilden Park. Photo by Jim Hale (source)

- My friend's cat died on Tuesday. I went to the animal emergency room with her and we were there until late at night. I don't really know how to deal with with grief or with emotions. I can deal with death, but I have a hard time dealing with the people who are dealing with death. I am the person who is reliable and durable and good at things that are black and white like math, but I am not really good at the grey things, the emotional things and the feelings. What do you say or do? Do you just BE there? Because that I can do, but I am not sure if it's better to talk about other things to take her mind off of it or to talk about it or to let her talk about it or...what!! I feel so inadequate. It's a problem I don't know how to fix.

- Okay I have to throw one Giants thing in here. It is just me, or does Timmy look like that kid from Dazed and Confused?

Timmy (source)

Mitch Kramer (source)

Do you think they look alike? Or not?  It'd be a lot cooler if you did (if you can name who said that you get a golden star!)

Have you ever had to frighten off a wild deer animal in the dark? How are you with grieving friends? Has anyone ever said that you look just like someone else?

Snakes and Stones

I love running on trails. However, I have started to avoid a few nearby ones due to the fact that there are massive poison oak bushes. I don't mind when it's on the sides, but on some of the smaller trails, its up over the trail and it's unavoidable. Usually I try to find trails where it's not so prevalent. That's one thing I try to avoid.

The other thing is snakes. Unfortunately, I guess Spring has Sprung (!) because they are everywhere. All of the below incidences were in the last two weeks.

Case 1: I decide to go on a 6 mile trail run at my parent's house on the Pacific Crest Trail. I guess spring maintenance hasn't happened yet, because it was so overgrown and the trail was covered with grass and I saw 2 rattle snakes and in trying to avoid them was running into poison oak. So I quit early.

Case 2: The next day, my Dad and I find a clearer trail (brush wise) but see a rattle snake, a racer snake and a gopher snake. Whew. On our drive home, we see THREE (!!) King snakes. However, the King Snake is a good snake, since it is immune to rattlesnake venom and it preys on rattlers as well. I don't know what happened with these three, but they were all run over on the highway about 100 ft apart. I guess they were all trying to cross at once?

California Kingsnake

Case 3: On the American River Bike Trail, in the middle of Sacramento, I almost stepped on the head of a fairly large rattlesnake. I gave a VERY girly scream and jumped out of the way.

Case 4: A few days ago in Oakland, I was doing some trail running and saw a rattle snake and another black snake with long (lengthwise) yellow stripes. I think it's a racer? I did not poke either with a stick. This would not be prudent. Did you know that approximately 72% of rattlesnake bites are due to someone (usually intoxicated males in their 20s) handling them? Less than 30% of bites are from accidental contact.

Case 5: On my volunteer run in the Ohlone Wilderness, we came across a baby rattler. Did you know that they are more dangerous than the adults because they don't filter how much venom they inject? They may empty out all their venom into you in one go. This would have been especially bad that day, since I was approximately 8 miles away from any help.

(that's 12 total folks!) 

I am not sure why there are so many snakes out right now. Perhaps the dry winter spawned a few more babies (did you know rattlesnakes give birth to live young?) this year! Whatever the reason, be on the lookout! My problem is that every stick I see, every root, every tree branch...is a snake!

Just so you are aware, if you are bitten, remain calm. Only 5 out of approximately 7000 bites are fatal. If you can get the anti-venom within 2 hours, you have a 99% chance of survival. The more calm you are, the lower your heart rate, which also slows the spread of the venom. Also, don't handle a rattlesnake, even if you think it's dead. They can inject venom even after their head has been chopped off for several hours.

Just for fun, I made a collage of some of the other animals I have come across on my runs/hikes lately.

Middle: 

Rattlesnake 

Clockwise from top left corner: 

Racer Snake, Goat, Bison, Mule Deer, Weird lizard with stumpy tail, possible Western Fence Lizard, Banana Slug, Black snake in KS (huge!)

Not Pictured: 

Cow, Coyote, Quail, Turkey, Bluebird, Rabbit, Squirrel

Do you see a lot of animals on your runs/walks/outdoor adventures? Do you know anyone who has been bitten by a rattlesnake?

Two Roads Diverged

Happy 11.11.11 Everyone! 

Now that I am not in Missouri anymore, I am running wild. Literally. I am ON the path less taken. Where I am these days is miles from civilization and so I have been running on trails, logging roads, abandoned fire access roads and other secluded roads in order to get my miles in. As you can see from the photos from last week, they are some beautiful places to run, especially in the fall.

Running into people or cars is not really an issue for me here. However, I may run into many other interesting things instead. Like the huge pile of bear scat that I narrowly missed the other day while on my long run. I grew up in the area, so am not particularly afraid of the wild animals. However, one must be careful, especially now when some of the animals are foraging for winter and sometimes come down a little lower on the mountains to find more food.

Instead of cars, here are some of the things you may run into in my neck of the woods. Once again, this is in a very literal sense.

Black Bear and Paw Print

Beaver, Grey Squirrel, Feral Pig, Skunk

Rattlesnake

River Otter, Mule Deer, Red Fox

Mountain Lion

All photos were taken from The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada by John Muir Laws. This book is awesome. It details all the plants, animals, prints and scat of the local area. If you are into plants, animals and scat like I am (hehe), you would love this book, or a similar book, for your area.

Do you live in the city or the country? What animals might you encounter near your house? Have you ever gotten too close for comfort to any of them?

Quicky Koala

Koalas aren't quick, so I am not sure why that one koala was named Quicky. However, it is lucky that they aren't because this gave me the chance to see a few. Here are photos to prove it. 

And of course a few more animals we found while searching for the koala. 

The Dingo That Ate Your Baby

Cockatoo

Hugest Dragon Lizard I've Ever Seen

And of Course, the Kangaroo! Boing!

If you haven't guessed, we are in Australia! More on that later! 

Q is for Quicky! See more A-Z challenge here!

Great Migration!

My Dad and I went for a drive the other day to see the migrating birds in the rice paddies between Chico and Yuba City. We couldn't have picked a better day. The weather was perfect, the waters were calm and clear and the reflections were beautiful! We got lucky because it had been overcast in the morning and it cleared up just in time for some photos!

There's a Cornshop On The Corner

(Written June 9) I am leaving Iowa, and in my wake, I am leaving miles and miles of 6 inch stalks of corn. It is nice to finally see some greenery in Iowa; the landscape has been mostly brown and white for the last 6 months. The tiny little shoots are finally dotting the landscape and creating a feeling of Spring in the air.

I learned a few things about corn while in Iowa, some of it, ironically from a book that I just happened to read while I was here, called Omnivore’s Dilemma, and much of it from the farmers and locals themselves. For instance, did you know that pretty much all of Iowa’s corn is not eaten in it’s natural form by humans? By this I mean that most of the corn grown in Iowa is considered “type-2” corn, and is used for animal feed and processed foods, such as corn meal and corn syrup. Oh and of course don’t forget about Ethanol.

There is very little “sweet corn” (edible corn) that is grown in the state. Also, I don’t know if I was the only one that thought this, but I was under the impression that when the corn was harvested, the combine took it off as a whole cob. However, that is not the case. The combine strips the cobs off the stalk and then the kernels off the cob and distributes this into a trailer that drives along side it. The cobs, stalks and leaves get put on the ground and later get rolled into bales or put in a corn crib where they dry out and are either fed to cattle or put back on the fields later for fertilizer of sorts.

Speaking of fertilizer, the farmers in Iowa used to keep a few animals around in order to fertilize their crops (which were also a lot smaller back in the day). Until after World War II, when scientists were trying to figure out what to do with some of the left over agents of chemical warfare. Enter the man made fertilizer that we know today. After that was figured out, the farmers nearly stopped using animal manure all together. Until recently, when huge pig farms cropped up in the Iowa landscape. These farms each hold about 2,500 pigs each and are quite plentiful. I don’t know the exact facts, but there something like 2 or 3 times the amount of pigs to people in Iowa. There are about 3 million people in Iowa, so do the math. Anyway, some farmers get the pig manure and use it on their fields.

Anyway, I digress. While I was in Iowa, my main job was doing damage assessments for Drainage Districts. A drainage district is a district made up of 2 or more farmers who share drainage pipe or ditches. The farmers in Iowa used to use clay pipe which has holes in it in order to get water into it; they would run it a couple feet underneath their fields so that when there was excessive water, it would drain down through the ground, into the pipe and then get carried to a ditch and eventually into the river. At least two farmers have to share the pipe for it to become a “district”, otherwise it is considered privately owned. So I spent a lot of time while in Iowa looking at fields, ditches and pipes. Actually I learned a lot while I was there and the people of the mid-west were quite friendly and usually eager to answer all my annoying questions about corn and drainage.