On Sunday, I fucked up my right knee at Viva Calle, and I didn't even crash or fall off my bike! When I got downtown, I rode a couple of blocks, then got off and walked my bike through the crowded activity area on First Street. When I got back on my bike and started pedaling, I felt minor pain in my right leg between my foot and knee. It wasn't that bad, so I kept riding my bike for the rest of the event. Yesterday and today, my right knee was hurting! It's swollen, and it hurts when I walk or try and bend it. I've been limping around for two days now, and it sucks! I came across this sketch yesterday. It's years old but still relevant! 

I went on a 7.4-mile hike this afternoon at Alum Rock Park. It's been a week since the last time I hiked, and I wanted to get a workout in before Viva Calle tomorrow. Viva Calle is a public event where they block off city streets from cars and open them up for bicyclists & pedestrians. They also have activities at different locations along the route. Tomorrow will be my first time participating, and Tonight I spent a couple of hours learning how to remove my bike's rear wheel and replace the inner tube. It had been sitting with a flat tire for months and waited until the last day to fix it. Hopefully, my bike doesn't fall apart on me tomorrow!

I went on a 7 mile hike tonight at Alum Rock Park. After only going on two short hikes in July, and feeling bad about myself, I decided to start going on longer hikes again and being more consistent. So far I've hiked 5 out of 11 days in August going out every other day. Go me! A couple weeks ago I was ready to rejoin the gym but with all the new cases of coronavirus being reported, and restrictions being enforced again, I figure I'll keep hiking in the meantime. Where else am I gonna see foxes taking shits on the trail?

I was feeling pretty disappointed with myself after only going on two short hikes during all of July so I really wanted to go on a nice long hike this weekend. Today I went to Alum Rock Park and hiked South Rim and a few other trails. I was feeling out of shape so I stopped to rest at a few benches along the way. I drew myself during one of those breaks. I did a total of 6.2 miles, according to my phone's GPS, in 3 hours and 14 minutes. (It would have been closer to 2 and a half hours if I didn't stop as much as I did)

I did not anticipate was how out of shape I was before DJing last night after a 12 month hiatus. Before covid shut down all weddings & events I'd been DJing every weekend for 7 years straight. I was used to the physical demands of the job. And although I'd been hiking on a regular basis for the last year, I wasn't prepared to be standing for 11 straight hours yesterday. Today I was practically dead to the world. I slept in late and when I woke up my feet, legs and back were all crazy sore. I stayed in bed most of the day, watched a couple movies and only left the house to go eat. I hope tomorrow's better because I gotta start sourcing materials and preparing for Saturday's event. I'll be doing an interactive live painting thingie downtown. It'll be my first time doing something like this and I need to figure out how I'm gonna accomplish it by Friday. It should be a lot fun and hopefully a lot less taxing on my body.

Another busy day. I spent part of it calendaring upcoming events, something I haven't done in over a year, marking my wall calendar at home and updating my Google Calendar online. Things are opening back up! I already have one DJ gig booked in less than 2 weeks and 3 vending events happening  in the coming months. Regardless of how busy I get, I need to stay physically active, so tonight I went to Alum Rock Park before closing and hiked up to Eagle Rock before sunset.

I didn't realize when I bought my bike that I was so out of riding shape. When I owned a bike back in high school I would sneak out at night and ride all around the neighborhood. Fast forward to now, many years & lbs later, and I'm having a tough time going just a couple miles.

Today, to get more practice and build stamina, I took my bike to Lake Cunningham. When I got there I found a parking pass inside the ticket machine tray, saving me $6. I rode my bike around the parking before doing two laps. It was hard as hell, especially with my shifters & derailleurs not working properly! I really need to figure out what's wrong and fix it. When I was done, I left the parking pass in the ticket machine tray for the next person to find. I'll probably keep going back to Lake Cunningham till I get more comfortable riding my bike and building my endurance, before going on long rides in the streets.

That last time I went hiking one of my boots started making a flapping sound and when I got home I saw that the sole came unglued from the middle of the shoe. Today I glued the sole to the shoe and clamped it tight for a couple hours before lacing up for another hike. My friend and I went to Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve and did the whole park, one loop a little over 4 miles long. Easy Peasy, and my boot seemed to hold up.

Today I went to Alum Rock Park to get my steps in. I hiked 7 miles doing the Penitencia Creek & South Rim Trails. When I got home I started looking through old pictures and came across the ones I took the last time I hiked Mission Peak in 2017. I'm ready to back.

I hiked the Mount Ununhum Trail with my friend Jackie this morning. It was 7.7 miles long with 1,200 ft of elevation gain but at a nice & steady incline. I heard about this place a couple years ago and have been wanting to go. It wasn't bad.

I saw my doctor today for a checkup and to go over my lab results. (that bruise on my arm in the picture below is where they drew blood a couple days ago) Aside from being overweight and slightly high blood pressure my doctor said my test results look really good. Better numbers than most people coming back for doctor visits after the covid shutdown. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought they were going to be bad, especially since I'm currently about 10 lbs over what I usually weigh this time of year. There's still plenty work I need to do health wise but I left my doctor's office feeling good. I wanted to treat myself so I visited my local comic shop, Legends, inside Eastridge Mall, and picked up a bunch of $1 comics. All of them are new but they're reprints of old books. After returning home I got ready and went on a hike at Alum Rock Park. I did all of the Penitencia Creek Trail, almost 6 miles, then came home and did some more work on my taxes. I have this weekend to finish as tax day is this coming Monday.

It was a pretty boring Sunday, cleaning and doing laundry, until I took my bike out for a ride. I went up a hill, stopping twice, and on the way down the chain came off the chain wheel and my rear brakes were barely slowing me down. I was afraid I was gonna eat shit. Luckily I didn’t fall and I managed to slow down by the time I reached the bottom. I got the chain back on then went home. I got my workout and a scare. I’ll try and figure out the brake situation before I take the bike out again.

I bought a bike today and it fits in the back of my car. I’m pretty stoked. I’d been thinking about buying a bike since last year and I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger. I went to Good Karma Bikes in San Jose. They’re a non-profit organization that sells refurbished bikes and does repairs. The last time I owned a bike was in high school, a Frankensteined bmx bike that I mostly rode around at night after sneaking out of the house. The next time I’d ride a bike would be at this thing called “Bike For Beers” in downtown. It was an event where mobs of people cruised on their bikes to different houses where they had kegs of beer and punk bands performed. That was about 15 years ago and I borrowed a bike for that. Now, with this bike, I plan on using it at normal hours doing normal shit.

I got my second vaccine shot this afternoon and got a nifty button! I didn’t experience any side effects either. I’m looking forward to hanging out with my fully vaxxed friends & family in a few weeks after the vaccine has taken full effect.

The tax prep is still dragging along nicely. I did a bit of work tonight. Mostly reworking the forms & spreadsheets I use to keep records. I do my best to log everything but I’m constantly trying to improve & streamline the whole bookkeeping & tax preparation process.

Happy Star Wars Day!

My body is sore as hell from yesterday’s hike and the scrape on my right hand is bothering me because the bandaids keep falling off where I bend my wrist. Aside from that it was a good day. I did a bit of active recovery and went on 3 mile walk at Hellyer Park. I hope I start feeling better tomorrow and that it’s not a case of delayed onset muscle soreness. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I went out with the intention to finish hiking the remaining trails at Joseph D. Grant County Park today and being 100% done. I came pretty damn close. I started at the Grant Lake Parking lot and walked almost a mile on Mount Hamilton, where they were laying down fresh new asphalt, to reach the Washburn Trail trailhead. Then I walked to the barn. From there I hiked up to Tamien Trail and got lost at the end of that trail before coming back to Washburn. That’s when it got cold and overcast. I hustled the rest of the way on the Cañada de Pala and Los Huecos trails because it was getting close to closing time and I was afraid my car would get locked in the parking lot over night. Because I was in a rush I slipped coming downhill and scraped my right palm. It stung and got a little bloody but it wasn’t bad. It hurt more using the hand sanitizer when I got to my car. It was past closing time and luckily the gate wasn’t closed. I didn’t want to press my luck so I left. I’m gonna have to come back and do that remaining 1/10 of a mile on the Yerba Buena Trail in a few days and be 100% done hiking all of Grant Park.

I went to Ed R. Levin County Park for the first time on Sunday. I wanted to hike all of the Agua Caliente Trail but I had to turn around, with less than .6 miles to go, so I could be out of the park by closing time. It was beautiful. Saw lots of animals including 2 snakes, one on the trail and the other in the dog park being escorted out by security. I can’t wait to come back. I’ll probably start hiking all the trails at Ed R. Levin when I’m done with Joseph D. Grant.

My buddy and I went on a hike at Alum Rock Park this morning. We saw deer, ducks & fish as well as some cool human-made stuff. Tonight I did some new sketches based on an idea a few days ago for a possible future project. More on that later.

I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine this morning. I didn’t have any reactions besides my arm getting a little sore on the injection site. My appointment for the second dose is in 4 weeks. I hear that one might be a doozy.

The day started off awesome. It started with a walk at Lake Cunningham with my buddy then followed by some day drinking downtown. I can’t hang like I used to because when I got home I passed out and woke up hours later thinking it was the next morning. I’m a little bit hungover but still feeling good.

I also got news that all people, 16 and older, living or working in Santa Clara County are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, days before the rest of the state becomes eligible. I signed up and got my appointment set for later this morning.

The website to schedule an appointment is https://vax.sccgov.org/home

My legs were no longer sore and I was feeling good so I went on hike at Alum Rock Park. The South Rim Trail, from the No Horse Bridge to the Sycamore Switchback Trail, reopened after being closed all of last year so I hiked that. I saw some wildlife feasting, drew in my sketchbook a few times, and found spring water bubbling out of a hole in one of the parking lots. When I got in my car to leave I felt something on the back of my neck and found it was a little green worm. Gross!
At 7.43 miles, and almost 1,000 ft of elevation, this was a great warm up for my upcoming hike at Joseph D. Grant County Park. Hopefully my legs aren’t completely dead tomorrow.

My legs are pretty sore from yesterday’s hike. It was only 4.23 miles with not much elevation gain but since I haven’t hiked in over a month I’m a bit out of shape. I was hoping I could jump back in and go do the last hike at Grant Park, which is more than double what I did yesterday, but I’m gonna need to train a bit and hike other trails before doing that last stretch. Depending on how I’m feeling tomorrow I might go hike somewhere else to keep this momentum going.

I went on my first hike in over a month. I went to Grant County Park to finish the Smith Creek Trail and crossed the water this time. I slowly and carefully stepped on the big rocks and made my way across the creek without falling or getting my boots wet. When I reached the end of the trails I sat down beside the creek and drew in my sketchbook for half an hour. I drew one of the big rocks sticking out of the water. After a month of no hiking I’m a little out of practice and will need to hike other trails to prepare for my final hike at Grant to be 100% complete.