Little Dinosaurs

I don't really know where these guys go in the winter, but I assume it is either in the rock walls or underneath the hot tub deck. The weather is finally warming up and the lizards, hundreds of them, are venturing out to warm up on the rocks. The Western Skinks (bottom) are also known as Pleistodon, which seems appropriately dinosaur-like. The immature ones have neon blue tails. We saw lots of them last year, but they must have all grown up as we're seeing many more of these striped ones this year. When I put this picture up on the computer I saw its tongue. Unlike lots of lizards they aren't forked, but they ARE busy.

The Western Fence Lizard (top) was like a statue as it contemplated starting its characteristic push-ups.They become active  when their body temperature rises above 54ºF . Western Fence Lizards have blue bellies and just a hint of blue can be seen on this one's mouth. Their main defense is speed and the fact that they don't taste very good which is what the blue indicates....

All the lizards eat insects so we welcome them back into our garden every year. Another asset...the Western Fence Lizard carries a protein in its blood that kills Borrelia bacteria. As a result, Lyme infected ticks that feed on lizard's blood are cleansed of the Lyme Disease causing pathogen.

I find it difficult to maintain an even pace during these disorienting times. Time seems to have less meaning yet some days I run all out all day and others I just sit around doing nothing much. That was the case today as the only thing on the 'calendar' was a Zoom strength class. Once I finished that, I was, well, finished.

Doing Pilates in the home office rather than in the studio is a good way to try out a new teacher or just fade into the background of a class by tilting the screen up. It's almost impossible to figure out where to place a laptop mat and oneself so that the camera (and the teacher) can see you without decapitating you, or showing only waving hands or feet. 

A further challenge is  keeping the two the rolling desk chairs out of the way , and placing the mat in the right place so I  can turn around on it or sit up without hitting my head on the bookshelf or tripping over the edge of the rug. In fact doing classes on a rug is far from ideal. The mat moves around on the rug like a live thing. Still, it's much better than no class at all. 

A lot of people seem to be turning their garages into places to work out, but in our case that would mean evicting the cars. Not that we are using them for anything right now...
Someone needs to figure out how to work your abs in a Mercedes or pump iron on a Ford Fusion....