6 posts tagged “california”
This weekend, on Sunday, I'm signed up for the Sandman triathlon down near Santa Cruz. (I'm also signed up for the Santa Cruz Mountain Century on Saturday, but I'm planning on bailing.)
Here's the thing. Since Alcatraz, I've been swimming exactly once. Once. In the space of a month. And that was in a pool, not in good cold water. I managed to run the San Francisco half marathon last weekend, but only with the help of my friend Rob. I'm already woefully out of shape compared to where I was a month ago. And so this weekend I'm going to try to tackle a .5 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and four mile (beach!) run without training for it whatsoever.
Wish me luck?
It was freezing this week in California (literally) and we figured that Tahoe and Yosemite were both too far and too cold (especially considering we'd both recently been ill) for a quick overnight trip. Big Sur and Ventana seemed like they might be a good idea, but again, distance and chilly weather were limiting options, and we've also been to those places so often that we wanted something different. Same thing with Point Reyes.
And then, all the sudden, we thought of Pinnacles. It's 130 miles from San Francisco, an easy drive, and has some of the most gorgeous landscape in California. Plus, California Condors. It turned out to be a great choice, and I uploaded a bunch of pictures to Flickr to prove it. Tuesday was particularly nice, as we more or less had the park to ourselves--unless you count friendly bobcats.
Bonus: note my groovy Vox and [this is good] T-shirts.
Point Reyes is my favorite place in the Bay Area to go hiking. It's close, it's beautiful, and it's got enough trail variety to keep you challenged and interested. We hiked from Bear Valley up to Mt. Wittenberg, to Sky Trail, to Coast Trail, to Arch Rock, and back up Bear Valley Trail back to the parking lot. It was about 12 miles in all, and we rolled in around lunchtime and were out at about 6:30 or so. It was perfect timing to be at the beach as the sun was setting. We left just before the sun went down, and hiked out much of the way after dark. As we have before, we spotted a couple of bobcats in Divide Meadow. Great day.
I went to Black Sands Beach in Marin County over the weekend. I
really dug the sand, which, to my unscientific eyes, appeared to be
"rocks." I took a series of pictures of it, getting closer to the
ground with every shot, and stiched them together for the results here.
Pretty, pretty, dirt.
1. This travel bug is now on my keychain
2. I'm glad to have hair again.
3. This was almost exactly a year ago.
4. I did this guitar track in one sitting, and I'm surprised to hear that I still like it. It would sound better with a flanger.
5. Wow, I am a nerd.
I'm heading to the California Book Awards after work today. It's the 75th anniversary, so I'm pretty sure they're getting me a diamond, which I'll refuse because of, you know, Kanye.
This will be the first even I attend at The Commonwealth Club, and I don't quite know what to expect. I joined largely because of the radio program, and to get to see some of the speakers. And of course, because I wanted to ask Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas what kind of effect a lesbian Batwoman will have on the price of oil, canola. So I did. Or, wait. So I will. Next time. Or whenever it comes up again. Anyway.
I'm feeling provincial and intimidated. I haven't read any of the authors, other than Jared Diamond (and it was an old book of his, Guns, Germs and Steel .) I thought about buying the Vollman book at The Booksmith the other day, but something about his name intimidates me. I think it's the "T." Furthermore, I don't know what to wear. What should I wear? Who are these people? Are they going to judge me? I hate being judged. That's not what awards should be all about.
In any case, the nominees are:
Gold Medalists:
William T. Vollmann (fiction)
Adam Hochschild (nonfiction)
Kay
Ryan (poetry)
Silver Medalists:
Judy Budnitz (fiction)
Lisa See
(fiction)
Yiyun Li (first fiction)
Jared Diamond (nonfiction)
Jon
Agee (juvenile)
Joyce Maynard (young adult)
Philip Fradkin
(Californiana).
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