eugh

[winterbadger]

I am *so* out of shape.

I went out for a walk after lunch. I didn't go far (~2 miles), and I'm not exhausted by any means, but I am certainly tired and a few parts of me ache after what shouldn't be that tiring a walk. Even gentle upslopes had me breathing extra. I clearly need to do this sort of thing much more (not that I didn't know that already).

And boy, is it hot! The BIRDS are all going about with their mouths open!

Speaking of birds, I saw the usual suspects (American robins, mourning doves, European starlings, our summer visitors the catbirds, house sparrows--both male and female :-) plus a few not usually spotted. Someone who might have been a goldfinch, but tiny. Someone who might have been a young blackbird (pre-redwing)--like a grackle, but without the speckly and the iridescence. And one or two someones who might have been a northern flicker.

I saw recently but not today a real proper crow (along our stream) and a red-winged blackbird (in the fields out in the country near Bryan's mum's, when I went up there for Neta's soccer party).

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

It's damned hot out there today. The weather station right up the road from me is showing 99.4 F right now, and Greenbelt Metro is also 99. So yeah. Hot. I took my granddaughter out to the park and we were almost completely alone. Everyone else had sense enough to stay inside.

[winterbadger]

Yeah, College Park says 97, Berwyn Heights says 98, and Calverton says 100.

In my neighbourhood I saw only a few people as I walked out, someone watering plants, a (crazy, IMO) guy sunbathing in the park, and a couple out trimming the branches on a tree in their back yard. Even when I got to the other end of the park, where the "dormitory" apartment buildings are and everyone is Guatemalan or Honduran (who I figure would mind the heat less), I passed one guy outside on his phone and two other people walking, otherwise quite empty. Saw one guy walking his dogs on the way back. That's close to deserted for around here. :-)

[ticktockmary.livejournal.com]

Of course you were breathing extra - the air is code PURPLE out there! If you must exercise, do it in the comfort of air conditioning!

[winterbadger]

Well, that would explain why my limbs felt leaden and my skin tingly. :-)

[schizokitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love redwing blackbirds, especially the males' distinctive calls. It sounds like summer to me.

And yeah -- anyone would get knackered trying to walk in that kind of heat/humidity. It's not worth a heat stroke just to burn a few calories, hon. ;-)

[winterbadger]

Thanks--no heatstroke worries, though. I've gotten close to that in the past and know better than to go there (just ask my friend <lj user="john_arundel" about "It's OK; I've stopped sweating!" :-) We have the "total summer" sound experience in my neighborhood right now--locusts! And at work we have mockingbirds, which haven't visited Takoma yet that I've seen.