Areas of Unrest

QOTD: "This is no time to act like a gentleman. I am a cad and shall react like one." - George Sanders

Reading: Mary Morris (editor), Maiden Voyages

Listening to: Four Tet, Paws

Decluttering accomplishments: did laundry

4 May 2002 - Valley Walk

I was proud of myself this morning for getting out of the house and doing a Volksmarch despite having overslept and getting a much later start on the day than I'd intended. Much later means leaving the house at 8:45 a.m., by the way, versus the 7 or so that I'd planned on. I realize that isn't late by anybody else's standards, but I do like to walk before it gets hot.

The walk I did this morning was the year round in Encino, most of which was along bike trails and park paths. Encino is more or less the heart of the San Fernando Valley. I usually think of the valley as bland suburbia, with Encino being a bit wealthier than much of the region. I was surprised at how many birds I saw, particularly at the Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve. I still think of the valley as bland suburbia, but now I can think of it as bland suburbia with a large side order of ducks.

The walk also passed an archery range, which was surprisingly busy, primarily with fairly young children. I loved archery when I was growing up and I went to the archery range nearly every day when I was in high school. I shot an end (24 arrows) each afternoon before going off to other activities. I'd say that I was just an adequate archer, never finishing higher than about fifth in the club, but I did enjoy it. Oddly, it's something I've just never thought about doing in years. Maybe it would be fun to take it up again. Not that I really have time for anything else in my life right now.

The other odd sport that was along the path was cricket. There are actually cricket fields in the park and there was a group of men dressed in white who were, I assume, playing the game. It's one that makes absolutely no sense to me, despite various attempts by various people to explain it. I'll stick to following baseball, thank you.

The last stretch of the walk circled Lake Balboa. I always find walking near water to be particularly pleasant, even when it's just a small lake you can see across. Unfortunately the walk directions there got a bit confusing so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I might have had I not been worrying about whether I might have missed a turn. Obviously, I did find my way to the rest of the route and back to the start / finish point. But saying to walk "about 2/3 of the way around the lake" is not very helpful to those of us who can't quite remember where we turned onto the path around the lake.

I took advantage of being in the general vicinity to buy new shoes at Phidippides. This is a phenomenal running shoe store in Encino. They thoroughly deserve their excellent reputation for service. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful - a sharp contrast to the big sporting goods stores. The downside is, of course, that it takes much longer when you spend time discussing your routines, trying on a lot of different shoes, and having them watch how you walk in the various shoes. And Encino is decidedly out of the way for me normally. Fortunately the traffic on the 405 wasn't nearly as terrible as it could have been, so I was home early enough for the usual Saturday afternoon routine of napping and reading.