Thursday, December 23, 2010

Erosion At Its Finest

First of all, thank you so much for the awesome comments and emails you all sent me about the Skinny/Fat gym remark I got yesterday.  You all never cease to amaze me with your support and it really is those things that help me get through my recovery, because we all know it’s a never ending cycle for me!

Today started early with me waking up naturally at 5.15am!? What?!  I figured there was no need to just lay in bed when it meant I could just get out into the field earlier and be done sooner to hang out with Whit, so I made up my warm apple oats and headed out the door.

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Check it out!  Doesn’t it look like there’s a fire?!  It’s just the sunrise beyond the clouds that were sitting super low!

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I knew today wasn’t going to go smoothly with the 5+ inches of rain we’ve had in the past 5 days but I never expected anything like this:

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This is normally a very stable dirt/clay road to drive on.  Not anymore!  There is a nice 2-3ft ravine that swerves back and forth across it for at least a 1/2 mile…and probably even more, but I didn’t walk that far. Oh how mother nature likes to destroy the things we build that disturbs her natural grounds.  I don’t blame her one bit.

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Obviously I wasn’t going to those points today and hopefully when things start drying up (though I don’t know when, since it’s supposed to rain on Saturday and January is the start of our wet season) they’ll fix it, but that’s highly unlikely.  But, for some other roads I lucked out and the ravines run alongside the road instead of on it.  Just scares the crap out of me while I’m driving!

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If there is one fun thing about floods and stuff, it brings out the funniest objects from areas I can’t see…I guess someone didn’t like this sign, eh?

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After what seemed like only an hour of excitement from discovering the results erosion at it’s finest, I finally pulled out my lunch…which was basically my breakfast, in sandwich form, and a banana instead of an apple. But it sure was tasty after not eating for…5 hours! Yikes!

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Best part about lunch though?  I was surrounded by almost 100+ of these beautiful little birdies…how could you not love that little face?!

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Any guesses on the species?  I’ll tell you at the end of the post!

All in all, the day out in the desert was absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to see the SUN!!!

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Check out this landslide though!?  How crazy is that!?

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More birdies!

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And some banana bread and an unpictured asian pear.  Nom nom.

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Look at the snow too!  It’s way up on the mountain at around 7,000ft but when I looked through my scope, you could see that it was at least 2-3ft deep!  Nutzo!  I don’t think I’ll be able to get through that stuff tomorrow when I attempt those roads!

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And see, this is what happens when you take out natural vegetation and try to built a dirt road on a mountain…nature fights back and tries to keep you out and away. I don’t blame it. (I was quite terrified to drive on that road actually, because I didn’t know how stable it was!  But someone had been there before me, so I assumed the best.)

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By the time I got home and finished my desk work 9 hours of work had gone by and I was ready for dinner…at 5pm!  No hate!  I figured, I’d been up since 5.15 right?!  Yes ma’am!

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I roasted some broccoli and zucchini in curry powder, cumin and garlic and sautéed three mini potatoes with a 1/2 cup of black beans for some substance.  All on top of a greens and spinach salad with tomatoes and cucumbers and I was set!

Whit ended up having a soy chicken bbq sauce sandwich with cheddar cheese and the roasted veggies and as much as I would have liked to have had the same thing, I hate BBQ sauce; yes, you heard that right, just like I hate pumpkin.  And coconut.  Shoot me now.

After we finished we bundled up and went for a nice brisk walk to look at the Christmas decorations people have been putting up!  If there is one thing I love about Christmas it’s the lights!  I can’t never get enough of the colors!  They’re always so pretty!

Now we’re warming up with some tea and my Christmas presents from Whit: Despicable Me (IT’S SO FLUFFY I COULD DIE!!!!) and an electric blanket…oh yeah.

I’ve got a long work day tomorrow and will get to go home on Christmas to see the family!  Yay!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!!

~~

Guesses?  Dark Eyed Junco!!

12 comments:

proudpatriot07 said...

Electric blanket= you will have trouble getting out of bed from now on. Seriously. They're just awesome.

Amy Lauren

Mica said...

Those are great presents from Whit, especially the electric blanket!

greensk8r said...

That dinner looks great!! Electric blanket?! Holy cow--I want one! And don't feel bad--I can't stand bbq sauce either!! :P
http://greensk8r-fireandice.blogspot.com

kitkatkateblog said...

Wow, no bbq, coconut, or pumpkin! Crazy girl! Haha, it's alright. :) I seriously thought that was bbq sauce your oats at first, though. Haha!

Katy (The Singing Runner) said...

You seriously have the best job with great views! Im jealous!

Christine (The Raw Project) said...

Great pics, you have such a cool job! I have an electric blanket too, but every time I turn it on, I can't keep my cat off of it. :-P Merry Christmas!

Heather McD (Heather Eats Almond Butter) said...

Sounds like your Christmas Eve Eve was a looonnggg day, and yeah, I'd be nervous to drive around those ravines as well. I'd much rather be at home curled up in my new electric blanket if I were you. ;)

You don't like BBQ sauce, pumpkin, or coconut?!? That's okay - I eat enough of all 3 for the both of us. ;)

Merry Christmas Melissa!

Jessica @ The Process of Healing said...

WHAT? YOU DON'T LIKE BBQ SAUCE? Kidding. haha. I'm not the biggest fan of coconut.
Merry Christmas love!

Biz said...

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!! Hugs!

The Hungry Runner Girl said...

We just watched "Despicable Me" and that quote made me laugh so hard. Hope you had an amazing Christmas!!! Yummy eats as usual:)

mymarblerye said...

hope you are having a great christmas!!! I've never seen despicable me but heard it's fun! What did you get whit?

Magdalena said...

We have dark-eyed juncos up in NH too!! Such funny little birds in their little groups. :)