I used to count how many miles I could ride a bike, run or hike. Now I count how many pills I can get down each day. Being an athlete and a yogi prepared me for this. Two years ago to this day, I took my first antibiotic and began treatment for Lyme disease with […]

Yesterday, he put his big boy britches on and let the vet poke him in the rib cage with a needle to check on a cyst. Of course it took his favorite position: burying his head between my thighs. “I don’t wanna see momma!”

I never knew our own Nitwit trail could be such a romantic setting. I came across this Mosquito Hawk on the trail and decided to take his photo. Because of the dark setting, I had no idea he was engaged in a romantic encounter with another mosquito hawk (to the right of the photo) until […]

This month I marks two years since the beginning of my treatment for Lyme disease. I'm astonished how much the body can take. I just finished a six-week course of IV Daptomycin (Cubicin), a new drug being used for Lyme disease following a successful study done on drugs that help eradicate it completely. Words can't explain how thrashed […]

Sadly it's not a macro shot. But not bad for a telephoto lens either.

I didn’t take critterology in college, but I think this is a Northern Alligator Lizard. There are many subspecies and it is difficult to identify which one this is. Perhaps this is a Sierra Alligator Lizard. This one was found on our Nitwit trail in Santa Cruz Mountains. The feet behind it is of a […]

I dodged a bullet yesterday. I had an ultrasound to re-check the DVT caused from a PICC line I had in March. The clot had run the length of my arm and part of my chest. It was resolved. As in: gone. Kaput. Vamos. My vascular doctor did not order the re-check. In fact, on […]

Wild Radish--Raphanus raphanistrum—a member of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) is native to Asia but introduced into most parts of the world. Wild Radish prefers growing by roadsides or places where the ground and soil has been disturbed, where I find it most in Santa Cruz Mountains. A tall plant in loose clusters of 2-3’ tall, its flowers […]

Twenty Percent. That’s the maximum amount I can do of my typical yoga practice—on a good day. Today was a 5% day. And the cracker? He sensed that. He grounded and guided me through a painful practice. For a dog who rarely has 4 feet on the ground physically or mentally, Loki’s a damn good […]

Something's bugging me and it's not the fact that the bug in that photo is slighly out of focus. A few months ago, my brother of TravelMarx, had a bad flu or virus. Despite having a flu vaccination, his illness was out of the ordinary, symptoms were severe and hung on longer than usual so he went […]