Looking Ahead to Today, Structure or Not

 I finally awoke and got up this morning as the time was approaching six o' clock...completed ten minutes of running in place on the living room rug floor as the coffee was brewing.  I don't know about any appointments or planned visits. There's no discernible timstructure or schedule ahead for today, other than reading, more physical training, or rest.  Ive grown to appreciate sitting outside on our back porch when it isn't raining, the chairs are dry, and Pewee Daisy seems the happiest.  From time to time I find myself with a mild headache...Melissa encourages me to be forthcoming about expressing my physical feelings to her. Beyond the gloomy, degrading news cycles i'm exposed to on television with this very disappointing, mean-spirited president and his soulless sycophants, it looks like old recycled movies, along with live major league baseball games on the Baseball.tv channel, are the only ways to go nowadays in this incrementally degrading society and culture.  Melissa is now up and about, and I am sipping on this tasty coffee, topped off by butterbeer-flavored creamer.  As for training goals, I want to keep my total dailyaccumulated steps at 7500-10,000.  Walking around our .7-mile neighborhood block and brief interspersed slow-running breaks, seem to fit the bill...as long it doesn't storm much and th temperatures can be endured..Good morning on this fine day to you all and enjoy it...God bless you....looking forward to hearing all the mourning doves, blue Jays, and crows...

Early Rising, Day Planning

I woke up and got out of bed this morning a little past three...did ten minutes of running in place while brewing coffee.  Now I'm sitting here looking ahead to the coming day, just a little past four.  One item on my agenda is to go down to my local public library branch, update my card and account, and check out one or two interesting books.  Unlike the case with 2nd and Charles a few weeks ago, I have no intention of picking out books out of desperation because I'm too tired and can't find a place to sit.  i do know that this is now post-Easter and we're now back on the regular calendar. It's a foregone conclusion that further exercise for me today will tax my ability to accomplish it.  If i do more back-yard inner perimeter laps, then I know what to expect.  And my eating will be measured and recorded., with the notion that spacing of meals and snacks is to be recommended. Yesterday evening i did watch a YouTube video listing and explaining 7 simple habits I could easily adopt...probably would be better off writing them down and implementing them, 1 by 1.  i want to install and begin using a smartphone app that identifies wild bird species by their songs...this afternoon on the back porch sounds like a good time to get that going.  And hydrating a lot more, that sounds good. Life is good, and I am a person in charge of my own happiness...

Chicken Family Jigsaw Puzzle

 

I just finished another jigsaw puzzle.  This one, a 300-piece depiction of a chicken family complete with rooster, hens and chicks, is a painting by Linda Picken titled "Farm Friends"...she has her own country property out west with lots of different animals on it.  I picked it up a few days ago at a chain crafts store on Newberry Road here in Gainesville.  I liked the combination of all the different colors and shapes in her picture...as well as the bigger individual pieces...

Starting to Use Phone Apps to Study Nature Around Me

Being someone accustomed since I was seven to look up at the clear night sky and readily identify all the constellations and brighter stars, I noticed that there are smartphone apps that do the same thing for users.  Well, I'm challenged in a completely different area: plant identification...they all look pretty much the same to me.  But I've discovered that there are also free phone apps (usually with a premium option) in which I can take a photo of a plant and they'll come up with the identification...or at least a list of the most likely matches.  I downloaded one such app and it identified one of the weedy bushes in my yard.  Maybe I'll become a plant enthusiast the way I like to look at the stars...since they're all around me it seems like it might be fun to become an expert on identifying them.  Also, since insects are all around as well why not get one of those bug-identifying apps and expand my foray into nature study...after all, we're about to enter "beetle" season in Florida.  Oh, and I see that there's an app that identifies birds from their songs...my "birding" experience was strong as a kid in South Florida some fifty years ago, but there are some different species up here in Gainesville where I now live.  And I do regularly hear strange songs without being able to see who's producing them.  Plants, insects, birds...well, that's a starter...

Eerie Visit to Jax Beach

I visited Jacksonville earlier today, and might I say it was a pretty dreary day at that (i.e. my kind of day). I guess you can infer that I decided to stop off at Jacksonville Beach from the above pictures I took. Often I plan to do this but usually end up just turning back around and going back home to Gainesville without taking a look at the ocean. But not today. I drove over to one of the many excellent (and free) public parking lots right next to the beach. It being early in the weekday afternoon, I wasn't surprised by the lot being nearly empty. There were a few cars scattered around, nonetheless. Looking at them, I noticed something peculiar: every one of the parked cars had a very elderly looking person sitting behind the wheel. Just sitting there, not making any move toward either getting out of the car or driving off. Well, I thought to myself, that's strange.

Having parked in the center of the lot, I got out and walked toward one corner where a narrow walkway to the actual sandy beach began. Facing the walkway was another parked car populated by...an old man. Next to it was a large circle of pigeons clustered together. They seemed completely oblivious to me as I approached them. Just as I got within about a couple of feet from them (with the intention of side-stepping the throng) they exploded into the air en masse around me, somehow avoiding colliding with me in the process. And then they flew off together. Strange.

I walked down the walkway to the beach. As I came out on the other side, I found myself suddenly surrounded, in very close quarters, by masses of sea gulls and pigeons flying all around me. Or to put it more accurately, hovering and collectively eyeballing me. Some of them were hovering so close to me, in fact, that I could have reached out and grabbed them had I wanted to. After several seconds of this, the swarm gradually settled and the birds landed on the sand and just stood there, aligned like magnets facing the north. I managed to get a few of these later shots on my cell phone camera.

I stood out there on the beach for a few minutes, enjoying the dreary ambiance while keeping a wary eye from time to time on my avian buddies. Then I walked back to the parking lot. There were a few more cars there by then and...yes, they all were occupied by elderly drivers who just sat there. I left, having my creepiness quota filled for the day...