Category Archives: Health

Ticks, Mosquitoes, Poison Ivy: Avoid if you can, deal with ’em if you can’t

The following is a post we like to run at the beginning of the warm-weather hiking season.

We’ve made the transfer from cool and budding to warm and lush. The weather is great for hiking — the associated annoyances we face along the way, specifically ticks and mosquitoes,  and poison ivy.  read more

GetOut! Possible thunderstorms, definite wildflowers

Finally, the classic warm-weather forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. 

Meaning?

We’re not really sure what’s going to happen. 

Action?

Plan your weekend as usual, but before heading out, check the radar. It will be pleasantly warm this weekend — perhaps topping 80 in the Piedmont, but mostly in the upper 70s — but not hot enough to generate those pop-up storms that come from nowhere. (And no, I am not a meteorologist, just a guy who’s spent most of his life poking a wet index finger in the air to gauge the weather.) Thus, if you check the radar of choice of your weather app, you’ll be able to fairly accurately judge what’s coming, at least within the next few hours. If your radar has a projection function, engage it to see where the weather is likely headed. read more

GetHiking! with Co-Workers and Friends: Reunite hiking

Face it: you miss your coworkers. Sure, Bob in the next cube could drive you nuts with his frequent “Got a minute?”s. The chronic tongue-clucker near the copy machine, the dude 

overmedicating on Creed Aventus, the fantasy football guys, the never knowing when Ms. Dithers might drop by “just to say hello.”  read more

Lost, or turned around?


I used to get lost. Now I just get turned around.

The difference?

I no longer panic when I discover I’m not where I thought I was — or should be. And the reason I no longer panic is because I learned how to use a map and compass.

Let’s get something straight up front: I am no Meriwether Lewis. I’m more a Ponce de Leon: eager to go in search of one thing, only to be distracted by something else. read more