The Gurly Life

Potty, for short

I give you ... Potter Van Smokersdaam. Directly from Amsterdam. Solar powered.

A major challenge to the ego

Really, this should be a post about the wonders of modern technology. To wit:

Today I had my second PT appointment. It was hard work but excellent. My hips are coming out of their sockets and I'm knock-kneed. No wonder running caused me some problems. What I have to teach my body to do now is to suck my femurs into their sockets and points my kneecaps forward instead of towards each other. Easy peasy. We worked on some yoga poses, but more like modifications, and ways to do the above.

Here's where the awesome technology comes into it. The PT used my trusty iPhone to video me doing the exercises while she explained what I'm supposed to do. This way I can run the video while I do the exercises and not miss anything. The great thing about this is that she can give me a lot of info in a short time and I can see what I did and replicate it.

The less great thing is watching myself on video. It's a combination of "Ew! My feet are fat - how does anyone have fat feet??" "Oh look, kankles," "Oh no, not kankles because my calves are so fat that they unkankle my ankles - thank goodness for small mercies," "Well, ok, my ass looks good," "Really, overall I look pretty good maybe that weight training is working a bit," "Oh god does my knee really look pudgy like that when I bend my leg?" "Well I guess that's not so bad," "When am I going to lose the baby fat?" And by baby fat I don't mean baby weight, I mean baby fat. "My feet look like barges," and "I look great!"

In retrospect, I'm not sure that getting my eyesight fixed with lasers was the best idea ever. On the plus side, I watched part of one of them after the session was over and I think I ran every red light between PT and the gym -- I couldn't get there fast enough. If you're having trouble getting motivated to go work out, just video yourself doing daily tasks, it's likely to work. Well, maybe if you're a woman it will work, not sure if you're a guy.

If you have an interest in PT and hip issues, feel free to watch. If not, I don't recommend them -- ultimately, they're really boring. Also, don't watch them just to watch me, it's creepy.

Oh, boy!

Today, this conflagration happened on the freeway I take to and from work.

I hope that bridge is not damaged, otherwise this freeway will be closed for weeks, making traffic everywhere else not fun.

Speaking of not fun, it took me 2 hours to get home tonite because of this. Wheee!

I did get back on said freeway past the kerfuffle, and it seemed like I got on the very first open on-ramp. The freeway in my direction was practically empty, and the freeway in the opposite direction was completely dark, cars were being diverted off it much earlier. You can see the lights of the cars on the other side of the freeway at the end of this little video, otherwise the whole thing is pitch black. Ignore my inane ramblings. It's not a very good video, by the way, but in my defense I just pointed it at the freeway without looking at it because I was looking at the road, which is what you're supposed to do while you're driving, I guess.

A flash of genius

You never know what will impress people, and why, what simple gestures are jaw-droppingly ingenious.

This, from Ivy the Monkey Goddess:

The other day, Elena was having trouble peeling a banana from the stem, so she flipped it over and peeled it from the bottom. It was genius. You had to be there, maybe.

Ivy and I were chatting in my office, when I pulled out my banana. Normally, I peel bananas from the stem and peel down to the bottom. I think most people do that. But this particular banana had a slightly green stem. Anyone who has ever tried to peel an unripe banana (and why would you? but curiosity may have made you do it) most likely knows that the peel is very cellulosy, almost rubbery, and it's difficult to crack that baby open without a knife.

I struggled with the stem for a few seconds, and just as Ivy was beginning to wonder how I was going to solve this problem, I flipped the banana over and opened it up at the other end with no difficulty whatsoever. Ivy's jaw dropped here, and she declared me a genius.

So I wondered, why was Ivy the Monkey Goddess so impressed by this trick? A quick, unscientific Google search revealed that monkeys peel their bananas from the bottom, not the stem. Shockingly, monkeys have a much more elegant way of opening bananas than we do (hah!). The point of this post, of course, is that Ivy is indeed the Monkey Goddess.

I borrowed the video from the same blog.

Along Dry Creek Drive

We took the local way to Kings Canyon National Park. Part of the drive was a solitary, windy road through ranches, and golden hills dotted with dark green trees that gave way to forest as the road climbed.

The Kaweah River

Seems to have a lot of tributaries and forks. Swimming is not advisable.

There are lots of signs and warnings that swimming in the river is dangerous and you can drown. Duh! They should really have a sign that says, If you're stupid enough to try this, thank you for taking yourself out of the gene pool.

Some amazing views

When driving through our beautiful nation's parks you have to mind not to drive over cliffs while admiring the view. I'm not actually kidding about that.

View from the top of Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park. Ditto with the video.

View looking west, along the climb to the top of Moro Rock.

Looking down the east slope of Moro Rock.

Moro Rock from the road heading back out of the park.

Dry Creek Road.

Dry Creek Road.

Kings Canyon.



This video is shaky because it was crazy windy. Anyway I'm a lousy videographer.

Kings Canyon, two rivers join. One is coming from the top right, the other from the bottom right, you can just see it peeking out of the plants things.

Dry Creek Drive.

Meadows

There are some amazing meadows in both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. They remind me of the Twilight meadow. My mom agrees.

The photos above are all from the same meadow, as is the video, near the Giant Tree Museum at Sequoia National Park.

Crescent Meadow, Sequoia National Park. Very active bear area. We saw one in the distance.

A random meadow as we drove out of Kings Canyon National Park. Doesn't it just make you want to take your shoes off and traipse gaily across it?

Trees!!

You may have noticed I am trying a different blogging approach with this weekend trip. I am grouping pictures together rather than going chronologically. Maybe it will work, maybe it will be dry as a bone, a bone that has been removed from the body and has been on the desert floor for a year. I've also added a couple of little videos, it's very difficult to get across the massiveness of these trees so I tried a couple of different things.

Giant Tree Museum, with giant tree. Look at the teeeeeny tiiiiny people.


The Sentinel, just an average sequoia, which weighs as much as two fully-loaded 747's.


This tree is enchanting. Its newer leaves are a lighter color than its older leaves, and with the sun shining on it it looks like it is internally illuminated.

There are A LOT of felled trees in the forest, which of course make it immediately obvious why someone would ask the question of whether, when a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, it makes a sound. It is a very reasonable question. These are the roots from a collapsed sequoia.

Here's a little video with some interesting info about sequoias.






Ed by Ned, the twin trees that grew so close together that they fused into one tree. This is not uncommon, it seems, there are quite a few that look like this. If you go to the post before this, you can see a picture of my mom inside a simulated footprint of Ed by Ned. It's a big footprint with a small mom inside.

This is a little video to show you how tall Ed by Ned is/are.

This just looks like an Ent. I was half expecting it to grab me with its branchy fingers and take me half way to Mordor.

Along Dry Creek Drive.

Mom and I take the national parks (after paying the entrance fee, of course, who do you take us for?)

Mom and I remembered to take some pictures of each other as well as pictures of the scenery. Here are a few.

Saturday morning, waiting for breakfast poolside with my Kindle.

Just some little ol' trees along the road. The tiny person with the red cap is my mom.

Between two trees.



My mom standing inside the footprint of two giant sequoias that grew so close together they became one tree at the base. They're called Ed by Ned (more pics later).

Mom in front of General Sherman, the largest living tree in the world. It is 3200 hundred years old. My mom's big thing was that she was afraid of bears. They have brown bears at these parks, which are generally not aggressive, unless they get used to eating people food and/or unless they have cubs. Instead, she got stung by a bee. It was a fuzzy, beautiful bee, so we felt kinda bad for it, poor thing.

I have made it to the top of Moro Rock, in Sequoia. 380 steps at over 6000' in altitude (about 2000m +). It makes you a little winded but it's doable. But if you are afraid of heights, I don't recommend it, there are sheer drops on both sides of the Rock.

Mom at the Kings Canyon Visitors Center.

By the river at the bottom of the Canyon.