Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Awhile back.....

Awhile back I posted about the new city park that is being built right outside the gate of my community. It is called "Discovery Park". At that time I posted some photos of the construction and today I took another photo of the area. Still nowhere near finished, but it is coming along.

They have added the bike/walking path

Here is a link to the original post:

Discovery Park - New City Park In Canyon Country, CA

Sunday, March 28, 2010

New Laptop

Bought myself a new laptop yesterday at Best Buy. My old one was about 2 years old and it had so little memory and hard drive that it was slow and was driving me crazy.


My new one is a Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Core™ i5 Processor - Black Obsidian. It has a 17.3" screen, 4gb ram memory and 500gb hard drive. I think I'm really going to be happy with it.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Looking Forward To A Fun Weekend

My brother Keith is coming up from Orange County to visit us this weekend. Ben has to work on Saturday, so Keith and I are heading over to Best Buy so I can buy a new laptop computer. Keith is pretty knowledgeable about computers so I want him to help me pick out a good one. I'm leaning toward either an HP or a Dell. I have a Compaq (HP) now. It is about 2 or 3 years old. It has a 15" widescreen and only 512mb of memory. It is running very slow because it is so full of stuff.
I want to get at least a 17" widescreen and I want to get 3gb or 4gb of memory on the new one.
Sunday, Keith and I are going to go hiking over in Pico Canyon. I have never hiked the trail over there, so I am looking forward to seeing what we find along the trail.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Oh Well

I was supposed to go for a hike this morning with my friends Gail and Herbie. I was going to take them up to the waterfall in Whitney Canyon.
The morning started out very overcast and didn't look like it was going to be a good day for a hike.
About an hour before I was supposed to meet them, I got an email from Gail saying that they were having car trouble and could not get down here, so the hike got cancelled.
Instead, I drove over to the Southfork bike trail near Newhall and walked for 2 and half miles before I came back home and had lunch.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Spring Has Sprung

This morning, Ben and I jumped in the car and headed north on Interstate 5. Up and over the Grapevine, down into the San Joaquin Valley. Headed west on Hwy. 166 to the Wind Wolves Preserve. This is 95,000 acres of protected natural area. They have hiking trails, camp grounds and wildflowers.
I wish Ben could go hiking. I would have loved to gone up into the canyon farther. Everything was so green. There was still snow on the mountain tops and they say there are Tule Elk up in the canyon.
Anyway, I did get to walk around the ground a little. Ben mostly stayed in the car or sat at a picnic table. He has bad feet and cannot walk very far without his feet hurting him.

Here is a link about this preserve.

Wind Wolves Preserve










Friday, March 19, 2010

Ouch!

Well I hate to say it, but I'm taking those TheraShoes back to KMart for a refund. I tried to walk in them twice. Did 2 miles the first day and then 1.5 miles the second day. First off, you cannot get into a "normal" walking stride while wearing them. For some reason, they make my feet feel "heavy". They make the back of my calves hurt really bad and they make my feet fall asleep and go numb. I just don't think I could get used to them no matter how many times I try to walk in them.
Don't know if the Sketchers brand is the same way. I'll just stick to my old Dr. Scholls.
Oh well, I gave it a try.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Walking Shoes

Just bought myself a pair of those new "shape-ups" type walking shoe the other day. I first saw them on the Rachael Ray TV Show about 2 years ago. I knew that they were very expensive.
I was at Kohls the other day and saw the Sketcher Shape-ups for $110. Here is a photo of the Sketcher:

There is NO WAY I was going to pay that much for them. I saw KMart had a "knock-off" version of this shoe. It's called the TheraShoe Olea. Here is a photo of the TheraShoe:
They sell them for $34.99. I kept thinking about buying a pair of them and kept putting it off. Well I was at KMart a couple of days agao and saw that they had the ThereShoe on sale for $19.99! So I bought a pair.

This morning was the first day I tried walking in them. At first they feel very strange. It feels like you are teetering on a log. They are a little awkward to walk in at first too. But after awhile, I got the hang of it. I really felt my leg muscles working as I was walking and I think they give you a better cardio workout too because it seems that my heart rate climbed faster walking in these shoes than it does when I walk in regular walking shoes. I think it will take a little while to get used to them, but I'm gonna give 'em a try.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Wildflowers And Friends In Placerita Canyon

Today I met my friends Gail and Herbie over at the Placerita Nature Center. They have never hiked over there, so wanted me to be their "guide" for the 4 mile hike. It was warm and sunny. The stream is still flowing and the grasses are tall and green. There were a few wildflowers along the way, so I took a few photos of them.







This is Gail. Her husband Herbie refused to
be in the photo

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY TO YA ALL

Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Few More Flower Photos

Took these photos right in my own neighborhood.

Hillside of Gazanias

Wild Mustard On Hill

California Poppies

Mixture of Gazanias and Poppies

Millions of Gazanias

A Sign Of Spring

My first tulip has arrived.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Nice Day For Hiking And Looking For Wildflowers

Took a nice hike today mainly to try to find and photograph wildflowers. I found some in Towsley Canyon, but they were very tiny. I almost missed them.




Monday, March 8, 2010

Getting Closer To Spring

Well, my tulips still have not bloomed, but they are getting close. Nothing on my calla lilies or my glads yet, but I did snap a few more shots of what is blooming in my flower bed. Click on the photos to see them larger.







Friday, March 5, 2010

Ben's Eye Appointment

Took Ben to his Opthalmologist this afternoon. We thought he was going to start working on the left eye, which is the one that has the ruptured blood vessel. Doctor said that there is still too much blood in the eye for him to do anything for it. He checked on the right eye again and saw that it was still leaking a little so had to do a quick laser procedure on it. Hopefully it is ok now. He told Ben to come back in 4 week and they would check out the left eye again. I just hope that Ben has not totally lost the vision in the left eye.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hump Day

Well, since I no longer work, "hump day" doesn't really thrill me anymore.
Right after I retired, my cousin asked me if I still got excited over the fact that it was Friday and that the week-end was here.
Every day is the week-end for me now and I love every single day. In fact, some mornings when I wake up, I don't even remember what day it is until I look at the calendar or hear the newscasters mention what day it is.
I remember when I was working, I really hated Sunday evenings. I would get stomachaches and headaches from the knowledge that I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. the next morning and face another work week. My last 5 1/2 years of work were the worst. I hated my job. The people I worked with were nice, but I had to accept a job that I knew nothing about when my old job was eliminated 5 years earlier. Those last 5 1/2 years, I never really understood what I was doing and I felt very uncomfortable about that because for the other 32 years I had worked at Lockheed, I was very comfortable in what I did and really enjoyed doing it.
Anyway, those days are over now and I can do anything I want, anytime I want.
Like this morning.....I went to WalMart! I love going over there and just looking all over the store to see what they have. I go early in the morning when it's not crowded.
Today I found this really cute denim handbag. Since I live in jeans, I knew it was perfect for me. It goes with all of my clothes (LOL).

Monday, March 1, 2010

Short Hike This Morning

I went out for a short hike this morning. Wanted to hike an area I had not hiked before so headed over to the Golden Valley Open Area. Found some early wildflowers.


We are supposed to be getting more rain tomorrow and into the weekend. Everything was very green and wet. I have to enjoy the flowing creeks and green grasses now because by June, it will all turn dry, dead and brown.