Much as we appreciated the comfort and reassurance of the cardio rehab lab, we declared an end to it on Friday. They monitored me while I exercised harder each day and nothing blew up. We decided I could abuse myself on my own without the commute to the hospital. Today I ran/walked a couple miles barefoot on the beach (the beach weather is back). During that, I ran an entire mile uninterrupted. It might be the slowest mile ever run, but I promise, it was faster than a walk. I picked up the pace for the last quarter, sprinted it out at the end, and stopped while it still felt good. Checked my heart rate and it was up to 150. It felt like it’s supposed to. I’m a happy guy. I got a heart rate monitor watch for Christmas. Judy got a pedometer. All those walks with Annie and walks on the beach; 16,000 steps in a day.
Port Aransas
Winter weather found us again. Cold (45 degrees), rainy off and on, and blustery winds until the weekend. That’s life on the beach (in January).
Gulf Waters
Our palm trees are growing so big they’re even taller than Judy. They’re almost not bushes anymore.
Along the way
A silhouette like this; you can tell from any distance, it’s a scissor-tailed flycatcher.
Birding
Drove to Port O’Conner yesterday. Saw snow geese, redheads, goldeneyes, loons, spoonbills, black vultures, osprey, crested caracara, sandhill cranes, all the usual gulls, curlew, dunlin, and royal terns, Charlie’s pasture along the ship channel today: spoonbills, osprey, 75 avocets, long billed curlew, caspian tern, 6 common ground doves, 25 horned larks, mockingbirds, and cardinals. A good walk. We’re studying up for the warbler migration that starts in March. A couple years ago, we were here for one week late in the migration (early May), and were overwhelmed by the variety of migrants. This time we’ll be ready for the warblers and waterthrushes anyway. That will be a good start.