Some weeks, I struggle to find the time to blather about anything here, and then when I do find the time, I kinda don’t want to. This has been one of those weeks.
Posts Tagged → being an idiot
Catching Up With Nothing Again
It seems that I have a whole lot of catching up to do about nothing. So, here it goes.
After 26+ miles in my feetz, I really didn’t feel like lumbering on Saturday morning. So, I gathered my macro gear and headed to Sylvan for another photo creep amongst the bugs and the bees.
As you can see from the gallery, I got some photos that I really dig. Sure, I wish I could have got more of the spider in focus, and a flash could have really helped bring out the amazing face of the cicada, but for handheld macro with no flash, I’ll take what I can get. Note: Don’t forget to click on the gallery image to enlarge and navigate.
Sunday
Knowing that I was less than four miles away from another 30-mile week had me up at 5:25 AM on Saturday and on the trails at 6:35 to beat the weekenders and bust out a 4.46-mile loop and finish the week with 30.63 miles of lumbering. I’m still old, fat, ugly, and a confirmed slacker, but I like getting 30 miles in; it makes me feel good about myself for roughly the 10 minutes it takes to drive home.
Due to the early morning start in the dark, dawn woods, there were no photos to be had.
Monday
Monday, I was back on the trails at 6:40 AM to start another week of lumbering and hopefully more luck photographing woodsy critters.
I was briefly stoked when I ran into a couple of nice-sized deer about a mile into the hike, but as with the previous morning, the sunrise continues to lag behind me, and the noise from shooting at 5000 ISO was way too heavy to be saved. All I ended up with on the day was a trail shot of the sun breaking through the woods.
Despite the lack of photos, it was nice to start the week with 5+ miles in my legs, and I’m looking forward to more time outside in the coming days.
Later.
New Week, Same Me
After I hit publish on my last post, I realized that at 7 AM Sunday morning, Spurs (my long-time adopted Premier League team) were playing a pre-season friendly vs Newcastle in South Korea. And it was going to be the last match for club legend, Son Heung-min (손흥민).
Since there was no way I was going to miss Sonny’s last match in a Spurs jersey, a hike was off the table for Sunday, but a day of slack and goofing off would be had, after I mowed the grass later that morning, of course.
So, after a day off, I was itching to get back in the woods to lumber on Monday morning, and I was at the trails just as the sun was breaking through the morning mist made heavier by smoke from the Canadian wildfires that have been burning most of the summer.
Thankfully, even though there are air quality warnings, there is no scent of the smoke, and I’m fortunate enough to not have any lung or breathing issues, so there were no problems for me completing my daily micro-adventure.
I was feeling good after a day of rest and goofing off, and did my first 6+ mile hike in nearly a month.
Sadly, despite getting six miles in my feetz by 8:30 AM, I saw very little critter activity other than the squirrels, some random birds high in the trees, and one deer hiding deep in the dark woods waiting for the morning sun to break through the canopy of leaves above.
I also ran into a couple of 20-something-aged campers walking with their friendly dog near the campground. Sort of odd that there were no other cars in the lot, yet they had a pretty serious camp setup going on. I have no idea how they got all that stuff back there. The dude had next to no teeth and smelled as if he had literally just had a giant spliff for breakfast. Oh well, they were both friendly and their dog was a sweetie.
One final note…
If you are reading this on a mobile device, I know the blog looks like shit. I’m doing the best my old, uneducated, HTML-resistant brain can do to figure the shit out. It’s been pretty frustrating, and I’m about ready to delete the whole damn thing and start from scratch. Technology, am I right? Give me print design any day of the gahdamn week!
I found a simple, cheap, fairly customizable theme should look the same-ish over all platforms and have updated.
Later.
THE SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST
Over the past few years, I’ve discovered a shit-load of punk and indie bands from Australia. One of those bands is The Unknowns from Brisbane, and as luck would have it, they released a brand new LP last week called Looking From The Outside. And it’s FIRE!
The song None To Me above is one of my faves, but truthfully, it could be any number of the tracks on the album. They remind me a lot of The Buzzcocks or Wire, and the title track, Looking From The Outside, has elements that make me think of the New York Dolls.
I’m 54-damn-years-old and I still nerd out on music like I’m 18. I also can’t ever imagine stopping my pursuit of a new favorite song or band.
Two More Hot Ones
This week started where last week ended, with an early morning lumber in the unbelievably humid woods.
Sweaty, Waxed, and Paranoid
Note: The last photo in today’s post MIGHT disturb some viewers. It’s of deceased heron that I saw in some trees, and it’s sort of crazy. There’s no guts or anything, but dead is dead, and some folks don’t dig seeing dead. — Management
Troubles With Blueberries
Wednesday brought another morning of lumbering. It also was a chance to prove to myself yet again that I’m an idiot.
Late Tuesday afternoon/evening, I enjoyed some porch time with a couple beers while basking in England’s late winner over Italy in the Women’s European Championship semi-final. Then I went on to marinate some chicken for dinner later.
A Lack of Power
NOTE: As you can see, I am in the middle of some long overdue house cleaning here on Soiled. Things aren’t going to look “normal” for a while, but I hope to have my PHP updated and changed over to a theme that is not 15 years old in the near future. Or not.
Moving on…
Funny how a week can change like that *snaps old chubby fingers together*.
Tuesday night, as I was just about ready for bed, our power went out for no reason. No storms, no wind, no nothing. I figured some idiot crashed into a pole or something, and it would be back on in 45 minutes. It was not.
I Remember How To Bonk
I mentioned a few things here recently about the need to shake things up and push myself a little harder, so as not to burn out on any one outdoor physical activity, similar to what I did with dabbling in trail running last summer to get over some injuries and summertime ennui.
I love my lumbers, and I love lumbering with my camera, but the past couple of weeks of relentless bugs, lack of quality photos, and humidity have had me a bit miserable and looking for easy options.
Since I had a come to Jeebus moment in the spring of 2024 in regards to my love/lost/sort of re-found love of cycling, I figured, fuck it, let’s interject some riding into the lumbering mix again.
More Bad Than Good
The “long” 4th of July weekend was pretty crap, even by my very crap standards. I did next to nothing but mow the grass and stew in a pool of my own sweat and depressive juices, a pool that was reaching ocean-sized proportions by Monday afternoon.
From June to July
Here are a few pics from the last two days of lumbering.
Monday was a hot and humid lumber, while every insect in the woods gnawed their way through layers of bug spray to dine on the well-thinned blood hidden beneath my gelatinous folds of man blubber.