The GeekHiker

Until the wind kicked up this afternoon and upset my allergies, today was one of those beautiful, sunny, blue-sky’d LA days.  One of the few before June Gloom kicks in, and the sun is obscured by a depressing gray fog for, well, all of bloody June.  Anybody who thinks it’s sunny all the time in LA hasn’t ever been here in June.

I had so many, many things I could have done with this beautiful day.  There were hikes & bike rides & social events on the message boards.  It was a good day to go for a solo hike, or go walking down to the beach, or hop in the truck and head out for a drive.

So, I stayed home, just like last night.  I’m such a loser.

Well, not really.  It was the first full day I’ve been at home in weeks.  Between trips out of town, camping in Joshua Tree, and working yesterday (again), I really just needed a day to decompress.

And clean!  Laundry!  Vacuuming!  Hey, look at that, I’ve got carpet!  It’s tan!  I’d started be unsure of what my floor covering was.  I read through weeks worth of LA Weekly’s, dumped piles of junk mail that had been stacking up into recycling, went for a walk to return yesterday’s DVD.  Productive, but in a lazy way.

And I ended the day giving into temptation.  You see, over the last week or so, a couple of people (and the guilty know who they are) had been dropping the thought of hamburgers into our conversations.

Well, I thought, I haven’t hauled out the BBQ in far too long, I think today’s the day.

I don’t BBQ nearly enough.  Especially given that I live in Southern California, where you can BBQ all year ’round.  Although, admittedly, I’d probably BBQ all year even if I lived in Barrow.  Yep, out there getting frostbite while flipping burgers, there I’d be.

So, I went all out: Trader Joe’s steak patty, two slices of cheese, BBQ sauce, some lettuce (you know, so it’s, uh, healthy).  Hell, I even threw a couple of slices of crisp bacon on it, just to push it over the edge to completely ostentatious.

Oh, I’ll regret it when I get to they gym tomorrow and find I’ve gained 5 pounds.  Totally worth it.