Welcome To The Jungle

Sorry Mom, but this post is not about Guns N' Roses.

Upon further observation and research, it seems this is an Annual Sowthistle, not a mutant dandelion. Darn.

This time of the year that we actually have some growth in our back yard. The rainy season. It's pretty brown the rest of the time because not only am I lazy, but I don't feel like wasting the water it would need to flourish. What ends up growing is just a little bit of grass and lots of weeds like clover and dandelions. The guinea pigs don't complain as they love clover and dandelion leaves.

So now that we've we've had some rain, a good portion of the back yard is fairly green. Yes, it is still mostly weeds, but it looks pretty. The dandelions have gone NUTS and are taking over!

What really caught my attention and inspired me to grab the camera was what I will henceforth call The Biggest Dandelion Ever. I spotted what looked like a baby tree pushing up through the ground. I looked closer and recognized the yellow flower blooming on top and the distinctive leaves. The thickness of the stalk and height of the plant was impressive, so in order to get some perspective, I made Rusty sit by it. He has a good sit-stay, but was nonplussed and kind of annoyed.

Seriously, have you ever seen a dandelion that big?

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Fat bottomed girls, they'll be riding today...

It was a warm, gorgeous day in the Southland today. I was itching to be outdoors, in spite of an excruciating headache that was not cured by the combination of Alleve, espresso, protein, water, ice, and relaxation that I tried. I was still dying to get out and go for a bike ride. Los Angeles has quite a population of hardcore cyclists. I admire them, but am not one of them. Street riding scares the bejeezus out of me. Two of my co-workers have been hit by cars while on their bicycles in the past couple of years. One was pretty seriously injured and was out for over six months.

E and I bought bicycles about 12 years ago at Toys R Us. They were having a sale and we didn't really need anything fancy. They've held up fine. Of course they have, we've barely used them for years. The thought of getting back on his bike was a bit anxiety producing for E, but he agreed to join me. We decided to play it safe and go along the Chandler Bikeway, a glorious paved and lined path that runs from Burbank, not far from the above mentioned toy store, and to the North Hollywood subway station in the other direction. The landscaping is coming along nicely.

On our somewhat leisurely ride (a relative notion since we are both pretty out of shape) we saw lots of people of all ages, from infants to octogenarians, from various ethnic groups, and of different shapes and sizes. These are some things I observed:

• Families walking, in-line skating, and biking.
  

• Many people walking their dogs, from adorable little beagles to big, unaltered mastiffs who weren't so cute.

• Several kids and one adult skateboarding.
  

• Two women, each with a dog, working with a dog trainer.
  

• A dirty, hairy guy pushing his 99-cent Store shopping cart in the bike lane. He was keeping up quite well.
  

• Children jumping on a trampoline in a front yard. I don't think I've ever seen one with a big net all around it. When I was a kid, we just risked falling off and sometimes did.

• A couple of teenage boys playing football.

• Several houses for sale, many of which were pretty run down.
  

• A woman who was struggling to ride a bike again after 15 years. Two young girls were encouraging her. On our way back, she was resting, but proudly told us she'd done it.

It was so refreshing to be out moving and to see so many others doing it to. The Chandler bike path is one more reason that I really like where I live.