What · do · he · know · about · the · buttery · flow?

Two weeks ago, we went over to Yosemite for Ginnie's birthday.

The wildflowers are really in bloom through there right now, all the foothills leading into the park are covered in yellows and purples.



We spent a good chunk of the first day taking the Muir Trail up from Happy Isle, past Vernal Fall, up to Nevada Fall, back down to Vernal and then all the way back.



A bit circuitous, but the Mist Trail was closed.



There was still a lot of snowpack and ice the further up we got...I made a wee snowman. Poor lad, he wasn't long for this world.



The next day, we took a longer lower-elevation hike from back behind one of the Mirror Lake Trails (where, unbeknownst to us, a rockfall had occurred the day before) all the way down to El Capitan, a good stretch of the valley. Along the way, near the village,
we came upon this weird asshole with his toddler, trying to commune with a deer. Dude, I know we're in the Disneyland of the Great Outdoors here, but that's still a wild animal, dumbass.



However, save for a wild pack of Boy Scouts from Santa Rosa that we kept passing along the switchbacks on Saturday, it was a rather peaceful weekend in the park



We really oughta get back more often than we do.


 



Then, this last Saturday, we went down to Redwood City to go roller-skating for our friend Andrea's birthday.

Aw, come on, there was no way I wasn't going to:



I was pretty awful. I started OK, but got skittish as more people started on the rink, and the falls snowballed and got more spectacular and embarrassing the more nervous I got. These are my knees the next day; those bruises are now a vivid shade of violet. I'll spare you a shot of my tailbone:



Ginnie was much better, however. She wants to go back, but I'm not sure it's happening, at least not without padding.


 

I don't have pictures of the rest so you'll just need to believe me. I've been running a lot again the last year, stepping it up the last few months, and I've been preparing to run the Bay-to-Breakers next month. I've especially been dreading the Hayes Street Hill, which, while not nearly as infamous as the Boston Marathon's Heartbreak Hill (I mean, for one thing, it's nearer the beginning of the race than the end, but also B2B  is just a 12K, not a marathon), it's much higher and steeper, rising out of Hayes Valley and cresting at Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies (better known as "the Full House houses" to people of a certain age from outside of SF). 216 feet and an 11.15% grade in about five blocks; all those years running cross country below sea level in Florida haven't really prepared me.

Well, I've been working on my hills but figured it was time to take on the beast itself a few times before the race proper, so I took the N to Powell Street station and ran from there back home, down Market, through Hayes Valley, up The Hill, past the panhandle, through Golden Gate Park, and back home. A couple things: as I knew they would be, Market and Hayes are terrible streets to run along, between the vehicle exhaust, the constant red lights, and all the foot traffic you have to dodge. But The Hill is doable. When I first turned down Hayes, I could see it in the distance, taunting me, and I won't claim it was fun, but I got to the top with no real issues and ran another four miles after. We'll see if I'm able to tame the beast next month, although really, my goal is just to finish.

Wrapping up, this week is Brewers' Week in San Francisco, which unfortunately coincides with Opening Week. Unfortunate because 1) it cost me much more for tickets now than it has the last few years when the Brewers would come in late summer and the Giants were already in the shit-can, but mostly because of 2) tomorrow's weather report:

		Tuesday: Rain. A chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may produce small hail and brief heavy rain in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 50s. South winds 5 to 10 mph.

Baseball down at China Basin in early April! Wish me luck.