Sure feels good to get that out!
As I write this I am supposedly taking the online Florida Driver Improvement course (in another window). What a waste of time and money ($20), you have to be logged in for 4 hours, but you can just skip to the quiz at the end of each section and guess at answers. If you get one wrong, it just lets you guess again. However, so far I was able to guess all correctly without even reading the text. I do have to wait until 25 minutes expires though before I can submit that I completed this particular section (just checked, still 18 minutes to go!).
So why am I taking this class? Because I was caught in a set-up by GPD that was supposedly to reduce pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Obviously I do care about this, as I ride my bike or walk as often as I can. I even read the article in the paper about this ticketing operation the morning of my ticket. So what happened? I was driving out to go kayaking on Lake Alto on a Monday morning. I had to go by CVS to pick up my meds (I have asthma) & ended out taking 16th ave to Waldo road, a route which I seldom take. Immediately upon turning on this road, I see cones out, cops around & I’m in a school zone (pretty distracting huh?). However, it is past normal school start time (it was 11am). But I came in off a side street so I am not sure if I somehow missed a blinking light. The driver in front of me seems to be going slower, so I just follow him as we pass by cones, Northeast Park, people on the sidewalk, a guy beside the road & more cops.
Suddenly a cop steps out & signals the guy in front of me to pull over. Continue reading →
I finished off my bike week with a 51 mile road ride this morning, in quite humid conditions. I’ve really been biking like crazy this week! Three mountain bike rides at San Felasco totaling 83 miles & two road bike rides totaling 87 miles. A total of over 15 hours on my bike this week! I am losing pounds (over 30 in the last 3 months!) and feeling great!
(photo from Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants)
This morning I started out by leaving my house & catching the Gainesville-Hawthorne trail to Hawthorne. It started out with a light rain, then just switched to humid. Riding around Gainesville lately is like getting exercise & sauna all in one, it really feels good to sweat and I was dripping every ride this week (yesterday my mt. bike ride was so humid I soaked my socks and the inside of my shoes from the sweat dripping down my legs (I know, gross!)). Anyway, about 6 miles on the trail, coming back from Hawthorne, I took State Road 325 headed down towards Cross Creek. About 5 miles down, I take a right on State Road 346 towards Micanopy before getting to Cross Creek. At this corner I noticed on my ride last week that my favorite milkweed, Sandhill Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata), was close to going to seed and I was exited that by this week I would be able collect a couple seed pods! Sure enough, there were some just popping! I brought a plastic bag in my new camelback and I promptly collected them! I have always loved this plant. It has distinctive purple veined leaves and would be a great addition to my native wildflowers. I tried to grow it from seed in Orlando about 12 years ago. I got them to pop up, but they never quite took off. This time I think I’ll try building a little hill of yellow sands this time & see if that helps!
From there I pass over the River Styx on the way to Micanopy. Funny, as I often think of death on my bike rides. Continue reading →
Chanterelles & Lactarius
(click to enlarge)
I finished my Memorial Day Weekend Outdoor Extravaganza with a 30 mile mountain bike ride at San Felasco yesterday (Monday). Apparently I am getting a little out of control, as I also mountain biked 17 miles Friday afternoon, got up Saturday and road biked 51 miles and kayaked 8 hours on Sunday. Not sure why I rode 30 miles yesterday, especially since it was between noon and 4 pm on a very hot day. At one point it started to sprinkle rain, but not enough to cool things down, just enough to raise the humidity and bring out the yellow flies (perhaps the only thing that kept me going!). I was done after 22 miles, but wondered if I could make 30, so I did. My legs were fine, but my energy was drained & I my head got so hot, I considered losing the helmet. But I thought better as during delirium is not the time to go without a helmet.
Anyway, I was quite happy to find my first wild mushroom harvest yesterday. They are mostly smooth chanterelles (Cantharellus lateritius) with a few cinnabar chanterelles (Cantharellus cinnibarinus) and a couple Lactarius volemus (perhaps my favorite). They are a little beat up from the ride as I keep them in a grocery bag on my handle bars. I cooked them up with some onion, garlic & olive oil last night & they were quite tasty! As this is still early in the season, I look forward to may more taste treats in the future. The blackberries should be getting ripe soon too!
Sandy Beach on the west end of North Key
I escaped Gainesville to Cedar Key on Sunday for a kayaking adventure with my friends Ben & Michael! After a bit of planning, including concerns about the potential for thunderstorms & deciding where to launch, we ended out launching from the public beach at Cedar Key (really the only other option was Shell Mound). It was a little rough getting 3 adults & 3 kayaks there in my little Toyota Matrix. We had two 16 foot kayaks (Wilderness System Tarpons) & my old 14 foot kayak. They each weigh a little over 50 pounds and were strapped on my rack that is rated at 100 pounds carrying weight. Luckily we were only 9 miles from arriving before I bothered to check them to find one had slipped sideways & the whole rack had slid a couple inches back on my roof. I say luckily, because I drove much slower after that & that would have delayed our start. Anyway, we arrived, unloaded the kayaks and got going by around 9:30 am. There was a strong head southwind that had the boys a little concerned, but I knew the kayaks were self-bailing & that we would be cutting through the island shortly to the north side of the island where the wind would be blocked by Cedar Key. So the waves were no big deal and the wind would be nice seeing that it was likely to be a hot day! Just past the new fishing pier, we saw our first sea turtle. Continue reading →
Trail Bikers at San Felasco (not me)
(click on photo for trail info)
No, I did not have heart issues! I am referring to my mountain bike ride on the new trail at San Felasco Hammock State Park informally named the Defibrillator. It is the most recent trail to be added out there a couple months ago. It is a 2.5 mile single track loop & has what I believe is the most vertical elevation change per mile of any trail in peninsular Florida. Sorry to be bragging, but I have been biking quite strong lately and am proud I managed to do 5 straight laps this afternoon without putting my foot down. Not the fastest pace, but made all the hills each time including one that is quite steep in 3 places and long. Not that technical yet as erosion has yet to expose the roots, but it is necessary to maintain a certain amount of speed to keep your track on the ups. Didn’t use the Granny gear, but did go to the lowest gear using the middle chain ring on that steepest hill. Other nice part was that I timed it between storms this afternoon. It had come close to raining, but ended out missing the park & dumped to the south in Gainesville instead. The result was cloud cover, breeze & temperatures in the 70s. Best part, is I had the whole trail to myself (my buddy Ben was jogging back on the Cellon Creek Loop). Between it being Friday afternoon and the scary looking skies, everyone else must have been scared off!
I also witnessed the results of an apparently fertile Spring! Continue reading →
Blue Curls (Trichostema dichotomum), from my yard in Downtown Orlando (Fall 1998)
This weekend I was pleased to discover the re-seeding of Blue Curls in my Gainesville yard! It was one of my favorite wildflowers in the backyard of my first house when I lived in Orlando. At that time I bought some from a native plant nursery & it re-seeded pretty well in my yard. However, I was not having such luck in Gainesville yet.
For my Gainesville yard attempt, about 4 years ago, I collected wild Blue Curls seed from plants along the San Felasco Mountain Bike Trail. I planted them in little pots, but they never came up that year. However, the following spring they finally came up & I was able to plant 3 of them. They grew big, but only one flowered & not for that long. So I was thinking I lost them after they died last winter. I had kind of forgotten about them until yesterday I noticed about 30 seedlings growing where the one did flower! I am now quite excited to have another addition to my seed bank! Continue reading →
My Toyota Matrix
2010 Honda Insight Hybrid
So I don’t need a new car (only 153,000 miles on my 2003 Toyota Matrix) and certainly do not have the income flow to justify it presently (trying to negotiate just for benefits at work as they don’t even pay into Social Security for me now). However, yesterday I found myself being offered a sales contract on a new Honda Insight?
How did this happen? Well, Friday night I found myself looking at the info on cars that might work in the snow if I move to Asheville & was checking out the Honda CRV. Of course the gas mileage did not seem so great and that got me to the Insight Hybrid. Checked out to be pretty cool. Not as fancy, but seemed much better option than Prius due to lower price & simplicity. But the biggest advantage is it had more ground clearance allowing me to get up the road to the family cabin in NC without bottoming out & losing parts! Anyway, got me curious to check out at some point (biggest concern was how to fit my bike in or on top).
So, yesterday I went for a really nice 23 mile mountain bike ride at San Felasco. I rode from 12p-3p in 90 degree temps, but Continue reading →
(on Cedar Rock, Pisgah Nat. Forest, 5/10/2010)
Once again thinking I need to blog. For those who know me, we (Hezzie, Heidi & myself) are doing quite well! You may notice I lost a bit of hair! Also working on losing some pounds! I’ve been biking pretty regular & avoiding beer, so that helps.
I hope to be able to add something to the internet world again. I will try to avoid cynicism, but that can be difficult for me at times.
I am trying to change & focus not just on thoughts, but connecting to who I really am. Hopefully I can be more authentic & that will be reflected in my posts!
Stay tuned!
PS. You may notice a new theme (appearance) for this blog (I use wordpress). This is because I switched my web host. In the process, I lost my database for my blog & cannot recover my old theme. However, I did back up the posts & comments, so most everything is the same. I switched to ipage.com for hosting. They claim to be carbon neutral & to be honest, they were cheap too. Had a few bumps along the way, but think everything is set back to normal in my domain (taroman.com). I am certainly glad to be departed from GoDaddy (embarrassed to say I ever signed up with them)! I had a 2 year contract with them & they sucked so bad for hosting. They don’t even have a toll free number for support. Every experience with them was painful, corporate hell! Ipage.com has been much more friendly, even when they didn’t really know what they were saying!
I know I use this blog to vent a bit about the various shitstems we all have to deal with in this modern world, but I would also like to talk about what is good about the world. I have the privilege of being a Social Worker. This allows me to connect to people that societal boundaries would otherwise exclude me from. Continue reading →
Sure feels good to get that out!
