twiddle twiddle twiddle...

mapmyrun! what a terrific app/site! we stop every
single time penny wants to, which is 2% of the
reason for my slow times... :)

looking out at I-5

-last night i finally got to schoolwork planning & it got interesting, then i had to go to bed. i'd been fretting & procrastinating bc there's a storm supposed to come in, & when that happens, teachers & students (& parents, likely) hold their collective breath waiting for those magic words: "snow day." this morn it was coming down pretty cold & sleety-looking. i know that when that happens, brave patrice, head of MO in our district, gets up at buttcrack-thirty, boards a bus, & hammers out to the PMC road. (our bus drivers are kinda like mad max that way. one once told me, mimicking a downward gearbox shove, when the snow comes & they gotta get the kids home, "we just drop the chains & GO!!") the steep, windy PMC road, leading to the alpine village known as pine mtn club, is what makes or breaks the school day: it's notorious for hiding black ice patches that wipe out unsuspecting drivers...
- patrice called it. no school today. i type that as i look at a heartbreakingly-blue sky. that's how our weather is up here: screwy, fickle, mercurial. (that reminds me: how do i get rid of this queen earworm i've had going for some weeks? every time i relax my thoughts, i hear freddie mercury's soaring, plaintive voice & rock anthems in my noggin... oh well; it could be so, so much worse as far as earworms go...)

this looks like little in the pic, but was so steep, i had to
ascend in a crouch, using my hands, near the top!

- i was all ready for school, already had talked/texted/facetimed with all my loved ones & dear friends, eaten breakfast, cleaned house yesterday, so my thumbs started twiddling, twiddling, twiddling. yes, this weekend i got all the little things fixed that needed it, did all the chores... all that was left was... bills.
- must find diversion quick! by 9 am i was messaging a local antique dealer who is giving a bunch of stuff away. i'm trying to collect little gifts for my students to give their moms on dia de las madres. i want it all! i was just realizing how overbearing i was becoming to the poor woman (free things!! must have!! drool!!!! slaver!!) when a sponsee called & broke the obsession. i meet with her soon, but earlier, with hours to go, i took penny on a hike on a beautiful fire road i've been thinking a lot about since i started reading the wonderful reverie the man who walked through time by colin fletcher, which scott jurek had recommended in his wonderful eat and run. (i highly recommend both titles! wow! great writing & topics!)

the tiny town of frazier park looked even tinier from edison

- christy z told me last summer this road is called "edison," as in, "wanna go up edison?" ... sounds so cool... but edison is steep! windy! removed from civilization! penny & i went just 2 miles in; past that, though i could see the summit, i decided i shouldn't go without company.
- next time! it was quite a wonderful hike/jog as-was, up in the billowing clouds & wide sky looking down, down, down upon our toy-sized town/village & the tiny interstate, rounding a curve & being braced by the most invigorating mountain breeze, slogging & huffing & pounding up, then wheeee!! downhill all the way back...!

happy dog sniffed all kinds of new things today

- my thighs haven't been worked this much, so high on the quad muscle, in some time. i'll be sore, but boy, it was sure fun. :) after that, home again, lots of water, some soda, & an everything bagel with butter: nothing else could have tasted as good!




- better prep to go try to be of some good use... snow day!