A few personal pics...

Subtitle: Procrastinating a few more minutes

Happy New Year! This is some of a… let’s call it a transitional post between the holiday pause and getting back into it. We can also call it for what it is: procrastination from thinking, whether hard or at all. So a couple of items from the days after Christmas.

First up, I received a card from the White House. My wife and I don’t recall getting a Christmas card last year. Maybe I did and forgot? Curious but very much appreciated.

During a run in the forest last week, I ran into my buddy, Shitung, a 13-year-old Arabian. After a lot of seeing and saying hello to Shitung and his owner Marianne in passing while on my bike or running, I finally stopped to introduce myself and chat early last year. I enjoy stopping to pet Shitung, and I think Shitung is started to enjoy seeing me. There are several horses I recognize, or at least I think I recognize on the trail, but Shitung is the only one I’ve met. (Those are dogs behind Shitung, a couple of sable collies, in fact. I met those people a few years ago. They must spend a lot of time grooming those dogs after their walks, which can go for hours. I grew up with collies, mostly tris, so I have an idea.)

Later that day, we went to the archery range. My brother-in-law expressed in interest in archery, which my son was eager to advance. My son, mid-draw below, shows how to shoot before handing his bow to his uncle. My daughter had her interest piqued as well, and though she plays volleyball and is captain of her wrestling team, drawing her brother’s bow was a bit much (different muscles in a different direction). That’s me on the left. He shoots Olympic Recurve with sights; I shoot bowhunter recurve, without sights, split-finger & “instinctive.” They used his bow, which at 25 pounds (or about 28 lbs “draw weight,” the amount of force needed to get to full draw) is much easier for them to draw on than my 35# (about 39lb draw weight) bow. His bow is heavier than mine due to all of those counterweights, but holding the bow up is one thing, the real strength check is pulling back while holding the bow steady.

Shout out to my in-laws for getting me this awesome t-shirt. Don’t come at me with your lies about Five Guys, as a Los Angeles native, I know for a fact that In-N-Out is better. I could totally go for an animal-style burger, fries, and a vanilla shake right now.

Due to the apparent end of winter here, you can see the lack of snow on the mountains in the distance, I went out for a short (14.5 miles) ride on my road bike yesterday in warm (50F/10C) conditions. It wasn’t a flat ride (2300’ of climbing), but that meant some views. Today, it’s raining, so we’re either in autumn or spring. We’ll see.

Paisley and I went out for a short run this morning in light rain. It’s going to be different living in Boston (we – my son, Paisley, the cat, and I move at the end of July, my wife, daughter, and another cat, are already there).

Lastly, and out of chronological order, this is from a walk with Paisley on New Year’s morning.

Here’s to a good year, a better year than the last.