We each have our method for dealing with stress…mine was hiking for 5 1/2 miles on Saturday evening. I was going to be waiting around for the social stuff to happen anyway. I had worked all day, either on school or art. I need more exercise. I wanted to see how far I could get…I could have gone farther, but in the end, it was good that I turned around when I did…the timing was better.
I do this hike all the time with the dogs…we go about a mile and a half out and then come back.
Scarily, that is a coyote, completely ignoring my presence, about 20 feet from the path. Where I usually walk the dogs.
Boychild says only one adult fatality from coyotes. Thanks kid. Appreciate it.
OK, well then. I was hiking late afternoon, trying to beat the heat…it was warm.
Here’s the weird bridge that’s not really a bridge.
It’s California. There’s always cactus.
It took like 20 minutes for my incredibly slow computer internet to load these photos. But here are the birds that I haven’t looked up yet (heron? egret?) that I saw at the turnaround point…the point where I realized I’d been out for an hour and needed to turn back if I was going to get any dinner.
The birds were totally worth it.
It was a nice hike. Yes, I always worry about hiking alone. I told two people where I was going. I told one of them to call the police if I wasn’t back by 7.
It was an awesome hike. Didn’t affect my blood sugar at all, unfortunately. My body is confused.
Before all that, I did do some ironing. I left this chaotic pile of fabrics…
With only these pieces left to iron on Saturday (it didn’t happen)…
And the to-be-cut pile like this…
Oh yeah, so I painted this birdhouse about a million years ago when one of the big fires was trashing San Diego County…it has flames and a dead tree. Boychild finally nailed it to a tree.
Hey! Remember these? Never going to get done at this rate. I have 10 left. I got 2 done last night. Sad, really.
And then after grading a good chunk of the day (I think I worked for about 10 hours this weekend on school stuff), I finally went in and finished ironing the fabric for this quilt.
There’s about 8 1/2 hours of ironing in here, plus 93 colors. I like lots of fabrics, apparently.
And here’s the pile that now needs to be cut out. I finished the new season of Call the Midwife, plus at least two YA movies that made me cry. Hell, Call the Midwife made me cry. I think I cried on the hike too. Obviously some shit in my head that needs to get out somehow.
So then I headed out to the living room, the couch, with dogs, to cut out pieces…I didn’t get very far, but it’s a start. Happy that…
Tried to pick something to watch that wouldn’t make me cry. I don’t really do comedy. So killing it is! Watching The Sinner…don’t tell me it will make me cry. I don’t wanna know.
More tonight. By then, I’ll know if I’m copyediting 102 hours over the next 5 weeks or not. Stress!
*Portishead, Sour Times
Kathy Nida 