virtualDavis

Today’s National Geographic Photo of the Day, though an unstaged, unanticipated photo opportunity, is oh-so-compelling. Admit it? Or not? We’ve all felt that way. Probably looked that way too!

Posted by virtualDavis via web from virtualDavis’s posterous

“Intensely active older men and women who have the means and see the twilight years as just another stage of exploration are pushing further and harder, tossing aside presumed limitations.”

Kirk Johnson’s inspiring article (NYTimes.com, January 7, 2010) reminds us that our golden years aren’t just our golf years. Retirement means more free time to explore and challenge ourselves and the world beyond the gates of our familiar community. It’s time to take the risks we were too cautious to take earlier, to chase down some of those dreams we’ve kept wrapped up for so long.

While some latter day adventurers “pursue challenges close to home, mastering a headstand or the perfect side crane balance on a yoga mat. Others go far afield.” Johnson describes Tom Lackey who started wing-walking in his eighties! And Betty Beauchemin, less than a decade younger, felt inspired to parasail. She learned how and even picked up skiing again.

Isn’t it foolhardy for octogenarians to court danger like this? Actually, some experts suggest that “older people might in fact be safer in adventurous, high-exertion activities and environments than their younger counterparts, or at least no less safe. And some use an old-fashioned word to explain why: wisdom… ‘It’s still the same knuckleheads getting in trouble or coming unprepared; young people, mostly,’ said Sgt. Bob Silva of the Eagle County Police Department in the central Colorado Rockies, who regularly gets called for search-and-rescue duty.”

Although Johnson sidesteps the obvious, aging is the ultimate adventure. Whether we surrender the yearnings for adventure which fueled our imagination and hopefully our lifestyle during younger decades, or whether we throw ourselves into life – the adventure life – with grace and enthusiasm reflects just how hungry we are to live. Just how unwilling we are to archive ourselves with all the other farts bitching about memory loss and joint pain…

via corcholat.com

I imagine this would not be fun as a traveling exhibition. Take down and set up? “Wait, that book’s in the wrong place!”

Posted by virtualDavis via web from virtualDavis’s posterous

Beech bark damage, inflicted most likely by a bear. We saw many similar marks during our Champlain Area Trails snowshoe outing at Poke-o-Moonshine’s Lost Oak Valley this past Saturday. Much damage, but no bears! (I’ve posted additional photographs on flickr if you look for the Lost Oak Valley set…)

This news, via ReadWriteWeb.com, claims that “Twitter grew at a rapid pace, peaking at a growth rate of 13% in March 2009”, but has since declined to 3.5% currently. But “18% of all Twitter users have more than 100 followers… Just six months ago, the average user was just following around 40 accounts.” So, what does all this mean? Saturation? Twitter’s improved their spam control? Existing twitter users are taking better advantage of the service?

Posted by virtualDavis via web from virtualDavis’s posterous

What is the point of connection between Martin Luther King, Jr. & Leonardo da Vinci? Both communicated ideas beyond the their time that shaped (and continue to shape) humanity? Both visionaries challenged the status quo? What else?

20 great foods you aren’t – but should be – eating. (Credit: The Times)

It’s 2010, the year to get healthy, right? Or did you already let your resolutions slip? Amanda Ursell’s 20 great foods you aren’t eating introduces “easy-to-buy super foods [that] could help you to live a healthier, flat-bellied and longer life…”

What are you waiting for?

Here’s a punch list of good-stuff-to-eat: almonds, apples, baked beans, chilies, dark chocolate, frozen berries, frozen peas, grapefruit, green tea, new potatoes, oats, oily fish, olives, parsley, poached eggs, pomegranates, prunes, tomatoes, turmeric and whole wheat pasta.

But how to eat all these good ingredients? You’ll find links to healthy recipes, so there’s no excuse to eat microwave dinners and fast food! Good luck.

While cross-country skiing in the back meadow, I snapped this image with my Blackberry. Not a great shot, but it captures the gist… These are the patterns imprinted in the snow when a couple of turkeys took flights. Griffin and I had been following the turkey footprints throughout our adventure — probably close to a dozen birds — and I had noticed several coyotes tracks weaving among the turkey tracks from time to time. No doubt the turkeys and the coyotes had wandered through at different times. But seeing that this area where all of the turkeys suddenly took flight suggests that they just may have been startled by a couple of hungry coyotes. Or maybe they just heard us coming?

Julie Roads is a writer, a blogger, a speaker. Writing Roads proclaims her wares, and her blog captures the whims and woes of the writing/copywriting/momming existence. Julie Roads is on twitter too, if you want the even more unfiltered soundtrack. And the website design? Clever and organized albeit slightly cluttered. In a good way. Like a writer’s desk…