Residents in Aotearoa: San Bernadino Drive

Thursday, 9 July 2020

San Bernadino Drive

Here is a post that was photographed during our Covid shut down.

This first shot was taken from Palomino Drive.  San Bernadino Drive is short. Short, but steep. If you are on SBD, you are walking up hill or down hill. The flat areas of the drive are defined by points, not by lines. By the time I arrived at the other end of SBD on Sturges Road, I was beat and my lungs and legs were saying to me, "Don't do this to us again, please."

Mathematically speaking, if the 'as the crow flies' distance from one end to the other of SBD is known as 'X', then the 'as the Doug walks' distance would have to be written as '2X + a bunch', due to the topography. The term 'bunch' is a complicated numerical variable dependent on the speed and age of the walker, taken together with the ambient termperature, wind velocity, angle of the sun, phase of the moon, and what the walker had for breakfast.

By accompanying me on this hike, you get to effortlessly admire the view. Best of all, because I'm taking the photos, you do not have to witness my transformation from the suave, sophisticated, fit, man-about-town that I was as I turned on to SBD, into the sweating, drooling, and shaking wreck that I was when I reached Sturges Road.

I once met a guy in a bar,
whose face was most ugly by far.
He said, "I don't mind it,
because I'm behind it,
it's the folks out in front that I jar."

Okay, now, take several deep breaths, (not that it will help) and let's go. We get to start off on the downhill slope.

The cars you see along the street are parked. It was uncanny during our Covid shutdown how quiet the streets were.

...gasp, gasp, I made it to Sturges Road. Another mile to get home though. sigh.

-djf

2 comments:

Dianne12 July 2020 at 05:43
Nice little street this San Bernadino Drive, but I'm glad I didn't have to walk it - or should I say - climb it. I imagine it to be as steep as Vintage Drive which I have walked and is all up or downhill depending which direction you're going.

My maps app doesn't show the topography but your pix give a sense of how steep it is when you're at a high point and see the Waitakeres on the horizon and the street and houses below. That had to be quite a hike - at least Sturges Road is relatively level for that last mile.

Thanks for taking us along.
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Doug Foster12 July 2020 at 12:49
Thanks for coming along, and commenting.
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My deer blind, a place outside of time and space.

This is a picture of my deer hunting blind. I built in in 1975 and used it until about 2010. I'm publishing this picture and text on November 15 of 2022, the opening day of Michigan's rifle deer hunting season, to remember all the years I spent sitting there and occasionally harvesting a deer. I think that the meat I provided for my family was only a small portion of the benefit I received from hunting in this manner. Of greater value to me was the time I spent alone, watching the forest and its many components interact. I had time to unwind from the stresses of my work, to appreciate our world, and even sometimes to pray. That blind was a refuge to me. It was cozy, and comfortable and I spent much more time filming the activities of not only deer, but bears, racoons, turkeys, squirrels, hawks, and once, even a snowy owl, than I did harvesting deer. May I suggest to all of you that you try to find some time and a place, where you can be alone, and where you can ponder and appreciate your life and your place in the world. It does a body good. -djf