Tuesday, March 13, 2007

High, Low and a book report

Today is one of those days I am waiting for something to happen. I felt sick yesterday, stomach was killing me last night, now today I feel better with more energy for sitting at my desk and having a dialogue. So I suppose tomorrow I will feel like crap which is good since I have a doctors appointment first thing in the morning. I may just ditch the workout today, (two days in a row) in an attempt to get over this sinus/lung thing. I haven't eaten a solid meal in 24 hours so my endurance energy might be off as well.

Listening to talk radio is a mix of Don't Ask Don't Tell and Global Warming. Caught a glance at The Today Show and Norah O'Donnell was kind enough to say that, "...of all the candidates among the "So-Called-Family-Matters" conservative party, Mitt Romney is still on his first marriage." What a stirring criticism of his background qualifying him for a run at the presidency.

I have a bike ride planned this afternoon along the IMAZ course. Like I said, I may ditch. I need to eat first before going into the furnace and riding along a busy highway in the heat.

Mistress has taken Mo are at another doctor appointment today. His second or third this month and this one is for his sinuses. Unless something else comes up he still has one more scheduled at the end of the month, a big one, a surgical consult for something else. We are hoping that the consult shows he doesn't need one.

As many of you know I am fascinated with the outdoors, survival exploits and realistic survival/outdoor gear. As such I am constantly reading books on the outdoors, mostly hiking, backpacking, navigation, exploration, archeology, buried treasure (oh what guy isn't), and situational exploits.

I recently finished reading The Ultimate Desert Handbook by G. Mark Johnson. Not so much a survival manual as a guidebook to co-existing with a desert environment. This is perhaps the finest book I have cracked that focuses primarily on our own American deserts but gives thorough explanations of all the desert eco-systems around the globe.

The essence of the handbook is a presentation on how to travel in a desert or be in a desert environment and enjoy yourself. It is not a trail guide or destination reference. It is more along the lines of how to find, draw and ingest drinkable water using methods as current as today and as old as time. How to navigate using a map, map and compass, constellations or GPS unit in terrain that very few landmarks to orient with.

G. Mark Johnson also has some very realistic chapters on choosing a good campsite away from wildlife and protected from the elements. How to dress properly and prepare a good desert kit. How to prepare your vehicle for travel in desert conditions and using it as a means of being safe and eventually found in a breakdown situation. I was pleasantly surprised and learned some things in his chapter on desert photography.

Not confined to hiking and navigating the desert on foot, there is also good information on how to use a 4WD and mountain bike to get around.

I can actually see myself using this book as a reference tool for many years to come living in a desert climate myself.

3 comments:

bunnygirl said...

Thanks for the book reference! I have a lot of family in NM and I use that region as the setting for much of my fiction. I'm all over this book!

I hope you and the kid are both 100% real soon!

Ellie Hamilton said...

Sounds like a great book. I love that kind of thing.

Also sounds like you need to take a few days off from training and get better. IM is a month out... you won't lose fitness now. You are trained. You could not train from here on out and still do the IM. Rest will only strengthen you now.

Bigun said...

Those are cool books, especially when you can go out and practice some of the thinks he talks about. I gotta admit, here in FL, not much desire to get out in the woods - the fun factor is gone with bugs the size of cell-phones and the growing Anaconda population.