Rillito Wash / Reid Park

January 19, 2025

I slept badly last night, as I have every night for the last week straight. The patten each night has been nearly identical: bed around 9:39 or 10, and then bolt awake sometime near midnight. I can’t get back to sleep so I get up and work the blogs for about an hour and a half and then go back to sleep. Around four AM the cycle repeats: awaken, up for an hour and a half, and then back to bed for another hour, I’ve been getting by on around five plus hours per night for a week straight. I actually got by on this little sleep for years when I was younger but it’s not sustainable any more. I really need :more like seven per night now.

Last night it finally caught up with me, and I found myself falling asleep sitting on the couch working on a post. Around seven I started being unable to writer and every other word would come out as some long senseless stream of characters when I apparently dozed off again. So I gave up and went to bed,

This morning Rachael was startled to find me still sleeping next to her when her alarm went off at seven. I slept for twelve hours straight, and when I finally wake up I don’t feel well and everything hurts: my back aches, my shin splints hurt, my left knee hurts because I think it was wrenched a bit in the crash. I need a day off obviously, so we scrap our planned ride east up the Rillito Wash. I might take a short flat ride to some inner city birding spot in the afternoon if I’m feeling better, but for this morning at least I’m sitting it out.

Rachael decides to go for a bike ride on her own though, and comes back thirty miles later with no photos to show for it but her Garmin track as evidence. When she rides she’s wearing two supports to help her with the pain from her arthritis: a brace for her right wrist, and tape foe her left knee.

And here, we have to honor her accomplishment. Two things about it: first, it’s thirty miles, she wore both her wrist beprace and her ankle is taped, and when she returns both her right hand and foot feel fine. That’s huge. Secondly though, this is her fourth straight day on the bike and she’s put in nearly a hundred miles. Thinking back, I can’t remember the last time she put in four straight days on the bike, but they must all have been consecutive travel days. As far as I can recall, the last time she rode her bike instrpead of take a hike was half a year ago, on a day ride with me from Exeter to Exmouth soon after we reached England.

And a decision to take a bike on her own? That may not have happened since last winter in Tucson. This feels like a huge development for the team.

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I spend the morning relaxing and working on the blogs, taking the opportunity to try to catch up from my backlog that has me between two and three days behind. Around eleven or so I’m starting to fade again though, and I pass out on the couch for another nap of well over an hour. When I wake up around 1:30 though I feel significantly better. My head is clearer, I’m less achy, and I don’t feel like I’m getting sick any more. I decide I’m well enough to bike the two flat miles south to Arroyo Chico. It’s a place I’ve seen birds in the past: mockingbirds, warblers and towhees for example. It’s pretty sterile today though, and I see exactly one bird. It counts big though, the first roadrunner of the winter for the team. I feel lucky that I was able to see him running across the bike path through my dark Ray-Bans. There’s no time to pull the Canon out of my rucksack of course, but the phone camera is just adequate.

I’m feeling better as the afternoon wears on, and with this encouragement I decide to continue on east two more miles to the best inner city birding spot in Tucson, Reid Park. Reid is a large expanse, with two big things going for it birdwise: a pair of ponds for the water birds, and a large expanse of grass and mixed trees on the east side where a variety of birds might be seen.

I plan to check them both out today but it’s nearing four by the time I finish at the ponds. I need to head on home because it’s dinner out night and I need to be back in time to catch the tram down to Reilly’s, which we want to arrive at when it opens at five since we don’t have a reservation. It’s just as well because it’s Saturday, the park is crammed with folks, and it would be a poor time to look for the shier birds anyway. I make a mental note to return soon for the other side on some weekday morning, and head for home.

This rhythmic group has been hammering away for the entire time I’ve been here.

As I enter the UA campus I revisit the scene of the crime. The accident happened when I pulled off on the curb cut and dead ended at the low curb just behind it. At the time it was darker and looked to me like it continued through to that slab just beyond it. Lesson learned.

Tucson appears to be throwing down the gauntlet against the Keep Portland Weird catchphrase.

I’m back in time, peace is restored in the TA household, and by 4:50 we’re boarding the streetcar at the stop in front of Time Market. We arrive at Reilly’s at 5:02, early enough still to score a table for two. We start by splitting an order of spicy Brussels sprouts, and then I have one of my favorites here, orecchiette with fennel sausage; while Rachael has the prosciutto and arugula pizza and takes half home for tomorrow, Oh, and they have a very nice west coast IPA. Reilly’s is another spot that will see us more than once this winter, I’m sure.

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Today's ride: 12 miles (19 km)
Total: 111 miles (179 km)

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CJ HornGreat bird pix.
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2 weeks ago

Scott AndersonTo CJ HornI am so thrilled with this camera. It’s a real game changer in birding for me.
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2 weeks ago