Cedar Ridge Preserve

 

Last Saturday we dropped the kids off at my Mom's and we went hiking. We went to the Cedar Ridge Preserve south of Dallas. The parking lot surprised me upon our arrival by being more crowded than I expected but once on the trails things did space out and you had some nature to yourself. Of course we went on a Saturday afternoon with gorgeous weather. Next time we will go on a weekday morning during the summer, or at least early in the morning if we return on a weekend.

 

 

It was much prettier scenery than I expected to find. It was also much hillier than we anticipated. We got some really good workouts climbing some steep trails. We did pass a humming beehive and quickly tried to move along. However, a lone bee did follow us and actually stung Kim! Fortunately she got the stinger out pretty quickly out of her leg and I had Tylenol on hand.  

We were also warned about venomous snakes, including rattlesnakes, but we didn't see any. If you stay on the trail you're usually okay. Snakes don't like people and will avoid you if they can. Still, the signs are cool.

There were a lot of interlocking trails to choose from. We were only able try a few. They were very well marked. Much better marked than most hiking trails we've been on. I do think they need more signs warning hikers of their difficulty. We were fine trying anything, but we saw some other hikers about to enter a trail that we just left that didn't seem prepared for what they were about to face. There were plenty of trails of various difficulty.

 

 

There were very nice views of expansive vistas. Who would have thought you could find such hilly terrain in DFW?

 

 

I would definitely recommend Cedar Ridge. It's free to enter although they suggest a donation at the entrance. It was very clean and well maintained. And it was one of the prettiest places we've hiked in a long time.

Mammoth Trip

 

 

Over Spring Break we made a quick day trip to Waco, Texas. We stopped at the Waco Mammoth National Monument. In 1978 some hikers came across some interesting looking bones coming out of the bottom of a creek bed. So they called over some experts from nearby Baylor University. It turns out they had found an amazing discovery of fossils. 

 

Apparently, around 70,000 years ago, 19 Colombian Mammoths got stuck in a flash flood event and died en masse in that creek. Other fossils have been found in the area including those of a sabre tooth cat and a pre-historic camel. Paleontologists eventually built a permanent climate controlled building over the site to allow for continued excavating in a protected environment. President Obama would later designate the site a National Monument.  

 

It's not a large place. But it's a fun visit. There's a few nice nature trails and they seem to be expanding slowly. Definitely doesn't take long to visit, maybe a couple of hours if crowded. But it was very interesting.

The Mothership

 

One of my favorite things to do is to head to the Half Price Bookstore "mothership" location north of downtown Dallas and spend some gift card money. I got to do just that last week on my birthday. My family was very patient and allowed me to browse at leisure. 

The first place I head to is the clearance section. There's always treasure back there, classics for $2. I then systematically work my way through the store. It's a massive bookstore and can be overwhelming if you don't come in with a plan. I always have a list of authors or books that I'm looking for. But I also leave some time just to wander and browse. 

I came away with seven books this visit. This should satisfy my reading requirements for the next several months. Here's what I came away with...

 

 

I'm looking forward to reading them all. I've started with both Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars.

The Future

 

 

 

I first encountered Kim Stanley Robinson's work in grad school and his writings changed how I view the world. His most recent book, The Ministry for the Future, is a transcendent read and one of the most important works I've ever read. Even Barack Obama and Ezra Klein say this is the most important book they read this year. It is a spectacular vision of a future that is both ugly and utopian, realist and idealistic. Intense social theory intertwined with a compelling narrative. I couldn't stop reading it. And when finished, I had to sit and let it wash over me. Hours later I'm still processing it. I'm sure I'll be processing it for a long time.

Tea Wars

 

I drink two cups of Green Tea every day. I have blogged about my love of Green Tea. But when I reached for the box this week at the store it coincided with what I was teaching that day in my classes. Whole wars have been fought over this stuff. This week my class studied (among other things) The Opium Wars when the British began importing opium into China to trade for Green Tea because the Qing Dynasty only accepted silver for payment. The British didn't have silver but they had lots of opium from their poppy harvests in Afghanistan. So the Brits decided to try trading in opium rather than silver. When the Qing tried to shut down the opium trade after millions of Chinese citizens became addicts, the British declared war and won so they could continue the drug trade. Oh, and all this controversy today in Hong Kong is directly related to this war. History never stops giving gifts.

Cars

 

My son, newly teen-aged, is big into exotic cars. He's got posters of them on the walls of his room and he likes to play Forza, an X-Box game that allows him to drive pretty much any car he wants. Reminds me of myself at that age. Not sure what it is about young adolescents and supercars. I had this Alpine Stereo Lamborghini poster hanging in my room growing up for years. I don't know what happened to that poster. Maybe it's in the attic. When I did a google image search for it, it came right up and brought with it a lot of memories of yore. 

The First Shot

 

Finally got my first shot of the Moderna Covid Vaccine. Despite being a teacher I was not on any priority lists. I had registered but never received the call. But then on March 2 our tool of a governor announced that he was declaring Texas 100% open. He was opening all businesses to full capacity and removing the mask mandate. Of course he did this on Texas Independence Day. And he did it at a Mexican restaurant.

This announcement came out of the blue. Everyone was shocked. It just didn't make any sort of medical sense. Texas currently ranks 48th in the U.S. in percentage of population vaccinated. Why would Abbott do this now? Well, it soon became transparently obvious. Abbott is trying desperately to deflect attention from his terrible job in handling our electrical grid during the Ice Storm two weeks ago. 

Such a political move is cynical even by modern standards of political malfeasance. This decision went against the advice of all medical experts. But it mollified his radical base as he's getting ready for a run for re-election next year. 

With the creeping realization that the masks may soon be coming off I realized I need a vaccine and I needed it quick. When I got home at 4:45 pm I checked my school email for some odd reason. And there was an email from our school superintendent saying that the county's vaccine hub had some extra doses if you could get there by 5:00 pm. I live about 15 minutes from the hub and I immediately drove like Batman to get there. I made it to the Vaccine Hub by 5:01 but they still had some doses and I got my shot with no hassle. 

Whew. What a relief. Now I have to wait until the end of the month for the second shot. I called my Mom and she and my sister got their shot the next day at the same hub. My wife also went during her lunch break the next day and got her shot. All a relief. 

Then last night our superintendent emailed that the governor had put teachers on the priority list for vaccines and they were trying to arrange for an employee vaccine event after Spring Break. But it's a lie. Abbott did not put us on the priority list. The Federal Government changed their rules at the direction of President Biden to put teachers higher up on the list. Biden, not Abbott. Geez, these crazy Texas Republicans won't give Biden credit for anything. They'd rather give it to the guy who did nothing to help Texas prepare for a terrible Ice Storm and then never cared to put teachers on the vaccine list. 

Well, at least I got my first shot.

HQBreakfast

 

 

Me and the Daughter having a high quality breakfast from McDonalds in the Jeep in the rain as we wait for the big Brother competing in a virtual robotics scrimmage last Saturday.

 

Outdoor Peloton

 

This is my Outdoor Peloton.

About 45 minutes after this photo was taken I ran over a tiny piece of brown glass that burst my rear tire. Some jackwagon had thrown his beer bottle on the road and man my tire blew fast, faster than ever before. I heard a pop and a loud hissing and within 30 seconds my tire was completely flat. Usually flats don't go that dramatically or that quickly. So I had to walk the bike the last mile home. At least I made it before the rains hit.