A long gap

It has been a month and a half since I blogged about any hiking or trails.. We did go on three trails.. one a little strenous and two were more little walks than serious hikes. 

I started a new job during COVID times and that has been an interesting transition in itself. Still for a guy who always posts something every week, it has been odd not to go type anything. 

Well, here we are. Things have not been easy as every day we wake up to news of someone passing away in India from COVID in the last few weeks. It is not unknown people anymore this time around. So did not feel like writing anything. Sometimes if you have nothing postive to share, silence is golden!

The three hikes we went on were a walk to Mori Point in Pacifica to see the sunset, a short stroll in Quarry Trail in Saratoga (which was 15 minute drive from home and a rather short but intense climb to see the valley from a nice vantage point) and the last one to Little Yosemite in Sunol area after a rave FB recommendation from a friend. 

Here are some pictures and a slide show from the three hikes..

a picture that sums up sunset at Mori point..

A early morning foggy view of silicon valley from Quarry trail hike..

Sunlight coming through the lone tree on an otherwise barren landscape in Little Yosemite trail

A watering hole on Little Yosemite trail for cows that made for a reflection photo spot..

Views of the reservoir from the top of the hills..

Mori piont was amazing. The flowers, the swing at the end of the trail, the sunset, the moon rise, it was something!

Little Yosemite would have been more fun if we had taken the opposite route on the trail. We went on the hike up the hill first and then came to the falls that is only a mile from the parking lot. It was a long hike without a clear path in most places in the barren heat.. the falls ended up being too crowded because by the time we headed back, it was a lunch picnic spot. Lots of folks without masks. So we just kept moving to the car and drove back. (this was almost 3 weeks ago). 

Since then any attempts to go hiking have been put on hold. The yoga studio has opened with a lottery system. I have been lucky enough to get through a dozen times in the last month and that is good. It is still not open anywhere close to capacity and hope the day arrives where you go and walk in and don't have to be lucky to do hot yoga. I could always do it at home with the space heater, but once you go to the studio a few times, it becomes harder mentally to fire up the space heater. When there was no studio, the space heater was a blessing. That shows I have a lot more yoga to do to treat the space heater and yellow walls with the respect they deserve! 

It is just a question of days before we go back to office again and that means things get even more interesting with time management, lottery management etc. My hiking shoes may have seen their last days for some time to come. If there is one thing I would choose between doing Yoga and hiking, it is always yoga. Sitting still is something that I have to work hard for and I plan to keep trying my best to do that!

Hope this post brings me back to blogging about things on a more regular basis!

A 2020 birthday

This year's birthday celebrations across the board have been muted. Given all four of us are November born, November is a very very special month for the family.. every weekend is a birthday. 

The little one had a cupcake candle blowing with just the three of us and her sister joining by Facetime from college.

Jr. was alone in her dorm room the entire day on her birthday and we called her and wished her on video. We will make up for it with a celebration along with her mom's birthday.

My birthday today was a bit more active. Originally I had signed up for a 8AM yoga class in the hot room 9 days in advance.. but last Monday we got news that all indoor classes are cancelled. There was a parking lot yoga class this morning at 10 AM that was taught by Michelle.. she was so inspiring that the 10 of us who did yoga in 50F weather outside gave it all we had. we were sweating.. the jackets came off! They did sing happy birthday to me in class which made my day! 

Came home to wear a new T-shirt (courtesy of mom from last Decembers India trip) and had lunch with my two walking buddies. They made it special today. We got some to go food and ate in our backyard. The family also joined in from inside the house. The Bhavikas trip has to wait... 

Jr. is back from college this weekend and is in self quarantine. The very fact that she is back under the same roof makes me so happy! 

They asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said "a family portrait". It was promised to me but the little one backed out last minute as she is busy with homework. So we do it next weekend on San's birthday!

We also walked 5 miles in the evening to round up the days activities.. I have been walking 8-12 miles a day this month to get some regular exercise. My walking buddies have made it fun. 

There is an african proverb "if you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together!".  Even though I walk during the day sometimes while on phone meetings, the same box around the block feels a long longer when walking alone. 

One more trip around the sun. I am still in decent shape, thanks to Yoga! The last 10 years of my life have been what they have thanks to a regular yoga practice. Even the walking everyday, the discipline is thanks to yoga. 

50F ouside, my mind is telling me to just pull that comforter up a little more and I know deep down that the right thing to do, is to go do the yoga.. and at that split second I make the right call. That is what the yoga has helped me with. When push comes to shove, when there is an internal fight in the head between taking the easy way out vs. rolling up your sleeves and getting things done.. making the right call... that is precious!

I did spend an hour in the afternoon reading Obamas latest book but dozed off. The lunch was too good! 

San and kids got me a cake and a candle to celebrate just between the four of us.. Trader Joe's cake is pretty good! 

Now, it is time to pull up that comforter and cozy up and read books or get back to work.. because tomorrow is back to work day!

Next weekend we celebrate Sans birthday, my star (Tamil) birthday, my moms birthday (thanks to time difference) and Karthigai deepam.. it is good that we have a long weekend coming to do all that celebrating.. even if it is going to be on zoom! 

Hope next year same time, we can go out and meet people and get hugs instead of elbow bumps!

A big thanks to all of you who called or wished me on social media and a heartfelt gratitude to my yoga family! 

Ganesh Chathurthi in 2020

Ganesha, vinayaka, the remover of obstacles has the big celebration today. Ganesha's blessings are needed more than ever this year. There are fires all around us.. (I am not philosophical.. literally fires all around us) and the air quality is see-sawing on an hourly basis.

Mostly we make all of the favorite foods for this pooja (which obviously are also our favorites) but this year we kept things simple. 

Missing someone, no marks for guessing.. 

Ganesha will keep her safe wherever she is, or that is the hope and prayer! 

You will find plenty of old posts on this blog for this event! 

It is the same day sheet calendar Pillayar that is still the mainstay for our prayers on this day.. but with the iPhone in portrait mode, he really shines.

San is getting good at taking pictures with the iPhone.

and the little one did a good job taking this photo for us.. this year given we are stuck at home all the time, have decided to wear a new T-shirt for every festival. Why not?!

2020 has been and continues to be surreal. There are always some positives from everything. I have not boarded a plane this year and that is a good thing. Have been reasonably healthy this year with the body. There is a nagging gum infection and I was told earlier this week that unless there is a gum surgery in two or three weeks, will lose two more tooth much sooner. Apparently they are gone in a few years anyways. This is the second time in 8 years this is happening. 

Not sure if there is any yoga for tooth. They seem to be the motorcyles of the body, when it comes to risk and insurance. Have been told that my dental insurance covers practically nothing and the bill for this will be in the many 1000's. Trying to figure out a way right now. If the virus wasn't doing its thing, would have gone to India to our family dentist and got the surgery done, but that is not an option now. Even with a flight ticket included it would have cost less than half of what it costs here. 

Praying to the "remover of obstacles" to make sure this will be the last time I go through this. 

To everyone who is celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi, may Ganesha give you everything you ask for! 

Want some kozhukattai(dumplings) now and will go help myself to some..

Allergies in COVID times

The last four months were really good for my lungs. Stayed at home. Was very careful everytime I went to the Sunnyvale Costco, the Cupertino Trader Jo's / Target or the local Trinethra. Always wear a mask, use hand sanitizer very liberally, shower after I come home (not just wash hands, go straight to shower!)

That was pretty much the list of stores visited over 4 months, sometimes once in 7 days or 14 days. 

Apart from that, have had my daily walk around the block either while calling into meetings where I am not front and center but have to be there for an entire hour (most of you know those meetings... where the one day you are not on call, they take your name in vain) or in the late evenings just when the sun starts to go down. 

Two weeks ago things became very difficult. Runny nose, sore throat, blocked nose, difficulty breathing through the nose during the night and end up waking up with a dry mouth, occasional nose bleeds because of too much sneezing which eventually turned into the usual sinus infection. Called the doctor and they promptly told me that I have nothing to worry as I can breathe very well through my mouth. My lungs are still good.. very good.. to the point that once I manage to do the first two breaths of pranayama as part of the daily yoga class, I can keep going. They didn't even bother to ask me to go get tested. 

There was also another thing I observed. The sneezing went into over drive when I shaved after a week. It looks like the cleft below my nose has become super sensitive and I can now shut down when detecting certain smells at much lower levels. 

If not for the daily walk and the 90 minute yoga class everyday, the rest of the day and night is practically spent sitting on one place. So it is not easy to give up the walk because of the allergies. 

The real question was, how can I get this allergies if I wear a mask thoughout the walking! Are pollen smaller than the virus? 

Apparently the Corona virus is 120nm and the size of Pollen is 15-200 um which is 15000 to 200,000 nm. The mask should have blocked the pollen from getting into my nose.Turns out the blooming Lilacs are to blame and when I am sitting in the backyard calling into meetings without a mask, the pollen got me. 

Muddled thorugh the that week and the earlier part of this week working with watery eyes and nose and sounding miserable. Maybe time to take a few days off just to take mind off things and sleep during the day. Staring at a monitor non stop from 8AM to 9PM is also not a good idea. Have decided to go and bring my external monitor from work and move it home. 

If BYSJ was open we would have been going through a summer 60 day challenge. After recovering from that ankle sprain made it 60 days in a row earlier this week.  This would have been my 10th 60 day challenge. In my mind it still is. 

We now have open air classes in the parking lot at the yoga studio. I got to be part of the first ever parking lot class. It was hot, it was not level ground and the sun was directly above us.. but think there were almost 20 of us and we did the class and enjoyed it simply because of the group experience. You have to learn to breathe hard through a mask though, and that was a curveball for me because my mask was not the right mask for this exercise. it was a mask that had already been used for a week and was too soft. A cloth mask or a more rigid mask with some structural strength would have been better.  I almost swallowed my mask during the final breathing exercise. 

There are more classes per week now and more folks are starting to show up. Have been staying put at home content with doing the classes on Zoom or alone to a recording because I was still sneezing like crazy. I have been told there is no chance this is COVID, but others don't. So didn't want to panic my fellow yogis!

My time to participate came again this morning. There is no more sneezing, no runny nose watery eyes etc.. the allergies have gone as of Friday! 

This time went well prepared for the sun and the asphalt in the parking lot. If you saw a guy among a group of yogis who looked like he had just gotten off his camel and looked like a displaced Moroccan, that was me. One beauty of having a lot more clothes during a yoga class is that you sweat more, which was a plus! Thoroughly enjoyed the class.

don't think many of my yoga buddies even recognized me.. they were probably wondering who is the crazy arab who is waving to them..

The allergies and sneezing though presented a very real challenge when trying to do anything outside the house or being able to show my face in video calls. I was not comfortable seeing my own face in that zoom window, so had to say no to a lot of facetime and zoom calls. People get scared even if you sneeze on zoom! that is how much we react or over react to things now. 

The good news is I am back to my usual self and the yoga continues. Now that I have mastered dressing up for parking lot yoga, will be a regular there. 

Wish this COVID blows over and we end up inside the hot room soon enough. A lot of my fellow yogis share the same sentiment. If we are six feet apart and are wearing masks throughout the class, why not just do this inside the hot room?! if anything the fan pushes everything down to the floor! 

Normally we would go to Chat house and celebrate the finishing of a 60 day challenge with some parathas and baturas.. we are in different times now! Hope things open up soon!