Roland Allen: Weblog

I’m making my first visit to Ireland in a few weeks.

I met MountainBikeBill at the head of East Ridge Trail on Sunday. He posted on his adventures in Caspers Park.

Sunday was a cool day.

I had hopes of going to look for wildflowers on Saturday, but Saturday was cold and overcast. The sun never made an appearance. However, Sunday started out promising. It was pretty cold all morning but about midday I packed up my cameras and drove up to Caspers Wilderness Park, which is only about seven miles from where I live.

The wildflowers were beautiful, although there wasn’t yet much variety. I hiked close to six miles and took quite a few photos that I’ve posted in an album.

It ended up being a “social hike” in that I talked to a few poeople along the trail. The first person I met was at the trail head. It turns out that meeting Bill was fortuitous. Bill maintains a comprehensive website that lists details of mountain bike rides and issues concerning the sport, and trail maintenance. His site is called MountainBikeBill.  Bill had been in the park all morning and had blown out the sidewall of his rear tire, but had patched it up enough to continue riding. I liked his attitude.

I had hopes of going hiking or mountain biking yesterday to see wildflowers. But, Saturday was overcast and got colder as the day progressed. Instead I went to breakfast in San Juan Capistrano and then to a track meet.

All told, it was a fun day at the track meet. However, I am thinking about how cold it is here in Orange County. I’m quite ready for “sunny and warm” days.

Being downtown reminded me that the swallows should be returning to San Juan Capistrano pretty soon.

There’s an article on SmugMug in USA Today.

As a proud SmugMugger, that makes me happy!

I used today’s holiday to get on my mountain bike. I rode in Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park. There were signs of spring everywhere, and I took lots of photos.

This is a perch for raptor birds.

The trails are pretty cool. Some of the single track trails are as good as those I rode when I lived in Marin County.

California Live Oak trees are majestic.

The upcoming Total Lunar Eclipse fits my sleep schedule. Here’s a guide that projects the eclipse by time zone.

Here is a line at the end of an USAToday article on yesterday’s shooting at Northern Illinois University :

The shooting was the fourth at a U.S. school within a week.

News like this hits me hard because I work in schools. Of course, I think that schools should be safe places at all times.

I was young when the University of Texas shooting occurred. However, I remember reading every word in the newspaper about Charlie Whitman what had done. I continue to read about school shootings. Although, I noticed that yesterday’s news from Illinois didn’t get as widespread attention as other shootings. I suspect that people are becoming desensitised to this type of news. That makes me sad.

I’m also sad and disturbed to read that there’s a push to allow university students to carry guns.

I’d rather see more “mystery” at the primaries, but I’m having fun with parts of this year’s political horse race. (By the way, I’m a registered voter, but not affiliated with a party. In California that is called “decline to state.”)

Actually, the most humor I’m having is seeing the Clintons viewed as “old school” political insiders. They are “The Man” in the democratic race. And, that, to me, is a hoot.

Now that I’ve talked about politics, don’t be surprised if “religion” makes a show on these pages soon. I suspect that to come, especially as I discuss Plato’s Republic in class and move on to Plotinus, Augustine and Aquinas.