4th Shot Scheduled

Over the last week I've been pondering whether to run or walk to get my second Covid-19 booster shot. Vague to non-existent guidance from the CDC and FDA have not helped. Recommendations from experts interviewed by the media (typically leading academics in medicine and public health) are to consider one's own risk level within the category of being age 50+. Then decide whether to "run, or just walk" to get a shot.

I chatted with a few of my friends about it. Most of them aren't yet to the 6 month interval from their first booster so they've got to wait a few weeks anyway. I'm eligible pretty much now. (Actually my last booster was 11 Oct 2021 so I'm supposed to wait a few days... but clinics don't seem to care.) What crystallized the decision for me was being voluntold by my company to support an in-person conference in early May in Georgia. I'll want a booster before heading into anti-mask conspiracy theoryland.

On the spectrum of "run, or just walk" I decided I don't need to run. I did check for appointments today and tomorrow, though. The closest is a 30 minute drive away. Would that count as "run"? I guess after I drove 105 miles each way for my first shot that set the bar pretty high. Maybe driving out of my way over a long lunch break would be just "walk quickly". 🤣

Next week we're in Hawaii. I thought of trying to get a shot in Hawaii but decided not to cloud my vacation with worries about getting a shot— or losing a day of vacation to sleeping off the side effects. I booked an appointment for a week from Monday, right after we get back. And it's only an easy 4 mile/10 minute drive away.

In Beauty I... Drive (Red Rock Canyon, part 3)

High Desert Weekend Trip-log #10
Red Rock Canyon State Park - Sun, 27 Mar, 2002. 1pm

For years I have used the tag In Beauty I Walk to mark posts about hiking in the great outdoors. My inspiration is a Navajo prayer, In Beauty I Walk. That phrase is both the title and the refrain. In that prayer walk refers not just to the literal act of walking but to the whole of life. It's about the journey of life and how best to take the journey of life.

In the modern world journeying often takes place by car. Thus In Beauty I Walk extends to In Beauty I Drive my 4x4. And that's what we did in Red Rock Canyon State Park after hiking Hagen Canyon (previous blogs).

Watch on YouTube

The brief hill climb shown in this video is from a section of the main loop the park ranger warned us is "very rough". As you can see in the video it looks like a walk in the park (heh) for our Nissan Xterra 4x4.

Toward the end of the video you see me waving out the window. I have a peregrine falcon puppet on my hand! It's one of several birds-of-prey toys we own. We took the falcon puppet on this trip because we know there's a nesting area for peregrine falcons in the park.



One of the marked 4x4 trails in the park goes through the nesting area. It's closed in the springtime (spring starts in February here) to protect the birds as they raise their young.



If i were a peregrine falcon I'd totally want to nest in those cliffs, too.

The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine (Red Rock Canyon, part 4)

High Desert Weekend Trip-log #11
Red Rock Canyon State Park - Sun, 27 Mar, 2002. 1:30pm

After driving around near the falcon cliffs in Red Rock Canyon State Park we decided to head to a spot in the park simply marked "overlook" on our hand-drawn map. The trek turned out to be both less and more than we bargained for.

It was more because the map was not drawn to scale. What looked like 3 miles on the map was more like 6 in real life. And while the disinterested park range warned us about the "rough" road near the falcon cliffs— which was rough only for glorified grocery-grabbers in 20" wheels and summer tires— the road out here was genuinely rough. Our Xterra still traversed it with ease, but only because of its high clearance in addition to 4 wheel drive.

"Less" described the overlook once we found it. Meh, I thought. But there was something fascinating right next to it: a mine entrance!



This wasn't marked on our map— our not-to-scale, hand-drawn map offered by a disinterested ranger who doesn't even know the true condition of the roads in her park— but I found out elsenet it's the Old Dutch Cleanser Mine.

The deserts of California are studded with old mines. Many of them were gold and silver mining claims than never paid out. But many are for softer minerals peculiar to the desert geology, like talc, gypsum, boron, and— here— white pumice. White pumice is the gentle abrasive in old for Old Dutch Cleanser was mined here until the 1940s.



he mine shafts descend at roughly 30° angles and they are deep. Our (small) lights couldn't penetrate to the ends, or even bends, in the descending shafts. And no echo was returned. And coldness radiated up from the shafts. These mines that were used for decades were suddenly abandoned almost 75 years ago. It was kind of spooky.



The walls and floors of the mind are still covered with a soft, white mineral. At first I thought it was talc, then gypsum. But no, it's white pumice.

Elsenet there are videos of people exploring the mine deeply. We did no more than scratch the surface because we didn't have the right equipment with us— particularly helmets and stronger lights.