turtles

On Monday we went on a hike to Red Rocks! It is a park, but because it's also a concert venue, they often close around early afternoon. We'd wanted to maybe go on a hike there a couple weeks ago, but were sunk by the early close. Monday was also an early close, but because we were up so early for my doctor's appointment, we still had plenty of time, haha.

This time we went on one of the easier trails, since our usual favorite has a few pretty steep and exhausting parts. This one was much nicer in terms of less elevation change, but it was pretty warm with nearly zero available shade, so we did end up turning around before too long. We don't want to overdo it for Bella.


A view of the amphitheater from the trail.


Some nice flowers!

Six more pictures, all plants:

Extra prickly prickly pear.


A little barrel cactus!


Some more nice flowers, and little fern fronds.


Yet different white wildflowers!


Some little blue flowers under the yucca.

Sir not appearing in the above picture: a snake! When I leaned down to look at the blue flowers, I discovered there was a snake curled around the base of the yucca under all the leaves and grass! From the bits of the tail and coil that I briefly glimpsed, I think it was a yellow bellied racer. The color was a very smooth grey-green with no visible pattern. I've seen them before, but not terribly often! It looked like it was probably a fairly respectable size, though it was hard to tell exactly how long.


A nice paintbrush!

And finally, this magpie! It landed on the fence in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave. I set a dog treat down on the fence, which it was perfectly happy to grab before flying away.

I did get to see my mom for a bit yesterday. I had to work, but she and Taylor went on what sounds like a great hike to Castlewood Canyon. (There are tiger salamanders in the visitor center! I'm so jealous; the visitor center is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we've never gotten to go in! Salamanders and their .____. faces are the best.)

After work I went over to hang out and chat for a while. I got her copies of Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (this year's Wayward Children novella) and Platform Decay (the new Murderbot book.)

It was nice to hang out for a little while! She showed me pictures from the hike yesterday, and of some of the other birds she's seen and such recently. They had a pretty heavy branch come down on the roof during the snow, but luckily it doesn't seem to have damaged anything. Her eye surgery was super easy and minor, and it basically just looks (and feels) slightly irritated, but is barely even noticeable.

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I bought my mom a copy of Platform Decay, which just came out. I had preordered it for myself back in March using a birthday gift card to Barnes & Noble.

I do not yet have a copy of Platform Decay.
My copy has been stuck in UPS hell for the last week. It had an "estimated delivery" of May 7th, but has had no new scans since it departed a warehouse in Missouri on the 7th. They just kept shifting the estimation up day by day, despite having no new scans.

Finally at 11pm last night it got an arrival scan at a USPS facility, though UPS wouldn't say where. (Though it got two additional arrival scans today, per UPS.)

Checking USPS instead, it tells me that the arrival last night was the most recent scan (and there weren't additional scans today), and also that that was at their regional hub in Reno, Nevada.

Why. Why did my book go from Missouri to Nevada? I'm in between those!

I want to buy books from sources other than Amazon. I use Amazon for a fair number of things, but I do try to use alternatives when I can. But man, it feels like every time I try to, I end up punished by not getting the item until a week+ after I was supposed to. I get that free two-day shipping has spoiled me and created an unrealistic expectation in general, but even accounting for that! Every time something gets misrouted, or apparently sits in a warehouse for days before being picked up, or the delivery person decides fuck it at the end of their shift and marks it undeliverable for some nonsense reason ("driveway was blocked?" well, there isn't one of those, so, I guess?)

It's not too painful for this book at the moment, because I haven't even started the Murderbot reread yet, because I haven't gotten there on the TBR yet, so it doesn't matter, beyond just the annoyance of the thing not showing up when it's supposed to. Assuming it does eventually arrive, it's fine. But I pre-ordered a few other books that I might be more eager to read immediately, and I will resent having to wait a week or two after release date to even get to start them, when I know I could have paid less money to a less moral company and gotten my much closer to instant gratification. >:/

But also, I am glad that it's coming by USPS instead of UPS, theoretically. USPS at least doesn't leave stuff in the lobby of the apartments to get immediately stolen.

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Our katydid eggs from last year seem to be no-gos. :( It seems likely that they didn't get quite enough humidity where they were at in my mom's garage. Alas. We'll keep an eye on them for a little bit longer, but at this point it's probably unlikely.

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Today I did go do my re-do blood work. (I think earlier I'd said this week was my dermatology appointment and the blood draw was next week, but I'd gotten them mixed up.) They only had to stab me once this time, which is nice! And this time I did know about it in advance, so I did do my fasting. We'll see if it still pings me for high cholesterol and triglycerides. I'm sort of anticipating that it will... but I'm trying! I'm trying to get the stupid exercise and eat a little better and get more fiber and not go to the corner store for snacks when I'm at work and hydrate more and I'm, ugh, taking ~vitamins~ and shit.

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After they stole my blood, we did go on a short hike, though we turned around before too long because it was sunny with no shade and we didn't want to overdo it for Bella. (I felt fine, so maybe my endurance is improving!) Eventually I'll get pictures posted, lol.

Even though I'd felt fine on the hike, we were all apparently pretty wiped out? Maybe just because we got up so early for my appointment, but Alex, Bella, and I all fell asleep for several hours once we got home, haha. I was especially surprised that Bella cuddled up between us for a long nap, ha. Usually she gets up to do her own thing if we fall asleep.

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Not feeling terribly motivated to do much of anything, ha. I have posts and comments here to catch up on, I have my reading page in my tracker to work on, I have cleaning projects at home to do... But I don't wanna. Perhaps I will rally and get something done, or perhaps I will lie to myself about feeling much more inclined to do more tomorrow, ha. I do have a headache that I can't quite shake, so maybe tonight is not the night for Being Productive.