The Blog of Daniel

Just my place to write without any delusions of self-importance.

Glargle!

Yes, I said it!  I say it again!  Glargle!  It's a general purpose word, said with nothing before or after it, when you have no idea what to say but still wish to express an emotion of some sort.  Today was one of those weird days as absolutely none of my primary expectations came to fruition but a few secondary ones did.  As such it is the perfect time to utter "Glargle!"  The etymology of this word is short.  Liz.  She said it one day and it just made sense.  I found the word in an internet dictionary long after I first heard it but they were all wrong.  So wrong that I don't even remember what they all said.  Some times on long road trips I'll say it just to make sure it still works.  It does!

Home Sweet HoleMy original plans were to start spring cleaning today but with the weather so beautful and the hot summer days ahead, I decided to be outdoors instead.  My new mission was to was to photograph some of the desert fauna.

I left early and meandered through 3+ miles of dry washes and 2 miles of hard trails looking for geckos, lizards, rattlesnakes or even a lonesome Gila monster.  I peered deeply into every hole in the ground and every earthen cave.  No such luck.  My guess is that just as I did, the deserts wildlife also heard what Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said today, but unlike me, they all probably all crawled even deeper into their holes and fucking killed themselves.  That's my theory.  Where else would all the animals go?  The Animal Conference?  There were many roadrunners though, perhaps dining upon the corpses of the aforementioned depressed reptiles.

Creosote bushes in bloomOn to the good things.  As you can see, the Creosote bushes are in bloom.  I felt as if I were hiking in a forest of buttered popcorn.  Then, since I completed 25 miles in a week, I rewarded myself with some hot wings and a soda.

The most excitement of the day was in the first 10 minutes when I happened upon three obviously unprepared hikers.  They were off the trail taking turns photographing a beautiful Saguaro and not paying much attention to where they were stepping.  Just as I was passing them, one of the ladies screams out as if she had been bitten.  She was!  Without provocation, an angry Cholla cactus ball jumped up and attached itself to her leg!  Her friends tried to pull it off with their fingers but they could not!  (Surgeon Generals Warning:  Do not attempt to remove Cholla balls with your fingers.)  Fearless as ever, I went over to the poor lady and handed her my Cholla ball remover (a hair comb) so she could extract its life sucking needles from her now injured leg.  For the remaining needles, I miraculously pulled forth from my magical backpack a pair of needle nose pliers.  Hurray!  Daniel saves the day!  Yes, I am embellishing, but only to make up for the lack of excitement that was to follow the rest of my day.  Indulge me.

I suppose I can add a funny side note...  I think I mentioned before that some mysterious property of my hiking boots on sandy gravel cause them to sound like someone coming up fast behind me on a mountain bike.  Until I got used to this I was always looking behind me.  Today there was a new sound.  Every time I took a step I would hear the distinctive whoosh of running water.  Thankfully it had nothing to do with my sanity, but rather the sound of friction and my nylon khaki shorts.  I was hoping that the massive static charge buildup from the constant chafing would allow me to shoot bolts of lightening at any passing reptiles but no such luck.

More Posts by Daniel