Sunday, October 27, 2013

String Theory

OK, yeah...I'll admit that the last puzzle was far too easy. Sorry about that. I know you guys prefer a bit more of an interesting challenge.

So which tennis player is this?

We'll talk about hamstrings, guitar strings, and shoestrings in a moment. But first, the answers (for those who don't follow tennis.)





The first tennis player is Arthur Ashe. Next is Bjorn Borg, followed by Jimmy Connors and Boris Becker.

On the second row, we have Locutus of Borg (aka Jean Luc Picard, possessed by the hive mind), followed by Boris Badenov, the fiendish nogoodnik. Next to him are a couple of Connors (Sarah and John), who are our only hope against the robot hordes unleashed by Cyberdyne Systems. And finally, we have Ashley "Ash" Williams, another great hero, played by the world's greatest actor, Bruce Campbell.

And of course, the two fellows at the top of the post represent Venus Williams, who (as far as I know) is no relation to Ashley.

Anyway, the good news is that my hamstring seems to be fine. After its suspicious behavior during the tennis match, I have been able to hike, run, and swim with no hints of hammie distress.

But here's a question for you: How often do you change your guitar strings?

I know that I don't do it often enough. I don't care about the degradation in sound quality that comes from old strings -- I have no audience, and the reverberation in my music studio sounds pretty good (probably due to the tile on the walls of the shower). No, my problem is that after a couple of years, the metal in the strings starts to shed slivers. And it really hurts to get a tiny piece of steel embedded in your index finger.

The weird thing is that the day before my E-string betrayed me, I had accidentally cut my other index finger while slicing vegetables. So here I am with two tender trigger fingers. Not really a problem -- it's just weird.

Anyway, the good news is that I really like my new hiking boots (waterproof, extremely comfortable, durable and easy-to-lace shoestrings: $30 at Big 5.) With the wonderful fall weather, I really wanted to do some hiking this weekend.

The first one was a short hike with my pal Chris after work on Thursday evening. We went to South Valley Park, and climbed up the Lyons Back trail to the top of the hogback. There was a little smog in the sky, but otherwise, you couldn't ask for better conditions.



There was a dude with a fan-chute craft circling around the park. I bet he had a great view.

I know I say this often, but it really is wonderful to live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and to have such a huge selection of gorgeous trails so conveniently close to home.

On Saturday, I went up to Mt. Falcon Park. My plan was to hike at least 5 miles, take a few photos, and give the new boots a legitimate test -- including a little bit of jogging.

I was surprised to see wildlife before I even arrived at the park. Perhaps the grass is tastier down in the neighborhood below the park. I'm not sure, but the deer seemed happy enough.

I don't have much to say about the hike, except that it was beautiful, and that I was able to run a significant part of it without any complaints from my feet, hamstrings, or anything else. Here are a few of the cool things I saw:















I'm not sure how many more days of this kind of hiking weather we'll have on the weekends, but if you have any suggestions for trails I should hike or run, please let me know. Thanks, and have a great day!

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