gurdonark

This morning I meant to go to the monthly Second Saturday Audubon Society Bird Walk at the Heard Natural Science Center. I got behind, a tad, and was concerned I would arrive late. That concern, combined with a disinclination to bird-walk until Noon, led me to go to Limestone Quarry Park in Frisco to walk on my own.

Soon after I began walking this sidewalk path, I saw a young coyote nearby. Soon I saw two more. The other folks on their walks described to me coyotes they were seeing. I got really good lucks at some of these mostly-young coyotes, but good pictures eluded me. Later in the walk, though, I did come upon a coyote who seemed about as curious about me as I was about it for the moment or two we looked across the distance at one another.

I walked on the Taychas Trail from Limestone Quarry Park to Harold Bacchus Park and back again. In addition to coyotes, I saw sixty Cedar Waxwings (an aggregation termed "an earful" or "a museum", according to taste). I saw thirty American Pipits (these birds nest in the Summer in the far northern Canadian and Alaskan tundra, but winter here). I walked over two hours and had a good time.

This week I've been using the Google Fit android application to track my exercise. The two hour walk amounted to five miles and some 12,000+ steps. I've confirmed my prior beliefs--most days I hit roughly 3,000 to 5,000 steps, but on weekend days, I take substantially more steps. Today I finished out at 18,600 steps, after taking further walks to walk my dog in the new-found sunny afternoon, to look for birds in Bethany Lakes Park and in Green Park, and to go pick up some bananas at a discount store.

I also listened to various Linux podcasts. I enjoy listening to podcasts while I walk.
My wife is under the weather, so we stayed in tonight. We had already postponed our plans to visit a museum in Fort Worth today via train. I went to Boston Market where, through the miracle of a two-for-one sale, I could pick up two meals at a low cost.

In the afternoon, I mailed off a card to a distant virtual friend enduring some challenges. I was reasonably happy with the photo card I had designed at Walgreens.com. So I created a Valentine's Day photo card for my wife. Walgreen's had it printed out in under an hour. I drove to the Walgreen's store. I had one of those casually bizarre encounters in which the man apparently behind me insisted to the cashier that he was first in line and that he was in a hurry. I did not complain, but in the event, I and a third customer were dealt with first, as we were merely picking up and could be handed our products and pointed to the cash register. I found the whole thing odd but not a big deal. The card came out just right, so I will design personalized cards more often in the future.

Now I am in for the evening, and plan to read, listen to music, do practical things, and relax with my wife.