Posts Tagged → The 2025 Ignorance is Bliss Tour

Finishing Strong

Wednesday’s lumber was not one of my best, but it also wasn’t my worst.

I’m not sure if it’s the return of the dark mornings, or what, but this week I’ve struggled to get my mojo, jo-ing. Don’t get me wrong, I have a little bit over 12 miles in my legs after two days, and that’s pretty standard, but as I started this morning’s lumber, there were times that I debated whether I should just lie down in the grass for a bit and take a nap. But I didn’t, mostly because of bugs, poison, and shit like that.

As I lumbered along, I thought I was going to come home yet again with an empty SD card, but as luck would have it, in my last mile or so, I saw a Dagger Moth (caterpillar), a deer, a Pale Tiger Moth (caterpillar), and a juvenile Cedar Wax Wing as I walked over the suspension bridge.

I don’t always wait until the last mile to get all my photos for the day, but when I do, I finish feeling stronger than when I started. AND, I post a little gallery in case you feel like enlarging. Just don’t touch the caterpillars.

As of now, I have 17.32 miles in this week, hoping for more tomorrow, and more luck with the critters.

Side Note: I’m pretty sure The Man My Imagination Thought Might Be Living In The Park is back! I saw what I THINK was his care backed into his normal spot when I finished today. He’s going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Later.

A Six Mile Start

I made zero effort to get out for a lumber this weekend, and was content to end my week with 22.93 miles and the knowledge that I also completed some long-needed upgrades to the Cul-De-Sac-Shack’s outdoor lighting. And by upgrade, I mean that the lights are no longer hunks of rust with a lightbulb attached.

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A Lost Tuesday

Monday night, I kind of found myself in a foul mood (shock!) and stayed up a little too far past my 9 PM bedtime.

The next thing I knew, it was 4:30 AM, and Wifey was getting ready to head to the airport to fly to Baltimore for a weeklong meeting. I kissed her goodbye, looked at the weather, and saw that severe storms were due in the area by 11 AM. Shit.

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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.

Blurred Weeks

This week has been a blur of morning lumbers, never-ending outdoor chores, and teaching old dogs new tricks. Or should I say, teaching an old fat guy who is dumb as a box of hair how to install custom CSS code in order to get this digital fish wrap looking tolerable? Oh, technology… piss off!

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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.