Stepping on Rattlesnakes

I hiked out to Black Top Mesa in the Superstitions yesterday. Along the way there, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I was walking along when I heard a short buzz and looked down to see a snake tail within about a foot of my foot. Startled, I jumped off to the other side of the trail. I don't know if a better reaction may have been to freeze there, but I definitely didn't think at all when I looked down. I believe the snake must have been sleeping or something, as he seemed somewhat startled as well. Normally when snakes have rattled at me before, they do so rather noisely and for a much longer time than a quick buzz. For whatever reason, I am glad that the snake did not decide to bite me and he wandered off instead.

The cloudless sky warmed up the 60-70 degree air nicely and the wind was mostly calm for all but about 30-40 minutes of the hike. This winter had much less rain than the previous few, but the grass at the top of Black Top Mesa was still thick, although slightly less green than in years past.

Marsh Valley Loop and Wise Man's Fear

Last Wednesday, I got out for a long 15 mile hike in the Superstitions. Originally I planned to do the shorter 12 mile out and back to Black Top Mesa, but decided on doing the 3rd trip of Marsh Valley Loop. I finished in rather quick time to for me, about 7.5 hours. After not doing a long hike for some time, I was concerned that I may have difficulties, but time flew by and I was not very sore at the end. I thought about another long hike on Sunday, but weather was not with me for that.

I started listening to the second book from the Kingkiller series from Patrick Rothffus, The Wise Man's Fear. This is the sequel to the Name of the Wind, which was a fabulous book. So far the new book is just as engaging, even if a bit repetative at times to the original book. This one took him over 4 years to write, I imagine the next book will be just as long and the 3 book series will turn into a never ending mess.

Selling some games

I recently decided to get into a new miniature game, Flames of War, which is based on WW2. As I don't like having hordes of junk sitting around my house, I wanted to get rid of something in order to make room for the new game. I decided to sell my Tyranid army off, which is the first time I am selling a whole army that I had painted. Warhammer 40k was the first game I got into and really isn't something I am interested in playing any more. I sold the army fairly quickly on eBay and shipped it off to someone in France. I am still waiting for it to arrive, hopefully there will be no problems with the shipment. I also sold of my (unpainted) lizardmen army from Warhammer Fantasy, another game system I have not been very interested in lately. I spent a lot of time painting up all those minis, but I don't feel bad about having gotten rid of them, which will allow me to sell other armies in the future.