I got to bed late: around 3
AM this morning. I had stayed up playing two of my favorite computerized games (solitaire & poker) for hours on end. I tend to do this
around this time of year, when weather forces me indoors and boredom snags me.
Anyhoo.
I was sleeping peacefully in
a dreamless state of total rest, when the phone jingled and jolted me awake with
an incoming text – which I answered, and promptly put out of mind … as I fluffed
my pillow and rolled over, and tried to recapture the peaceful weekend laziness.
I
was awake.
Time to rise … even if the shine would be delayed several
hours 😉
5 hours of shut-eye would
have to get me through the rest of the day.
Coffee perked, poured – and working
on the second cup, I stripped the bed and got the sheets swishing around in the
washer machine: then, I switched pj’s for outdoor clothing, and got busy
winterizing the outdoor faucets, storing the hoses in the Shed, and tidying the carport (nothing major,
just sweeping leaves, and storing/rearranging flower planters).
Then I checked the weather report
to see how the day will kinda unfold: I immediately saw that if I wanted to get
any productive walking in at all before next Spring, today was my only shot. I
do occasionally try to get some hikes in during the thick of Fall and Winter –
but generally, the weather (monsoon rainfalls & icy roads) keeps me
penned in-house, the majority of the Fall and Winter months.
Today, according to the predicted
weather pattern; would really be the only chance to give my hiking shoes a
workout, this month.
So, that’s what I did 😊
I left the wet sheets in the
washer (they’d get dried later), and drove to Lake Sacajawea Park,
fervently praying I’d find an empty parking space off-street.
I saw a Great Dane dog walking
it’s human past me as I exited the Highlander, and was reaching for my walking
stick; the dog’s coat was a beige color – I’ve never seen this color on a
Dane before, and I would have liked to have gotten a picture of it … but
it got out of photo-shot-range (those loooong legs on that long body, you know)
before I could get my phone out of pocket and ready to aim ☹
But I did see several other interesting
big dogs walking their humans – as well as other interesting sights – as
I walked along the Lake Hike Trail 😊
Although the Muscovy is called "a duc", it is technically not a duck. The Muscovy is a South American waterfowl that only resembles a duck in part; it has the body of a duck, but behaves like a goose ... hissing, rather than quacking; it has a breast like a turkey, and is assertive like a rooster. Muscovey ducks also have instincts to chase down small critters because their native diets consist of the ususal duck diet: as well as small rodents, lizards, snakes, and other small land critters.
Hmmm: it sounds like a feathered garbage disposal 😉
I was hoofing it pretty good
around the Lake (the quick pace had my butt and leg muscles burning by the
time I got back to the parked Highlander); and got back home a little after
1 P.M.
I finished drying the sheets
(and made the bed), drank a few cups of green tea with honey sweetener,
and enjoyed a peaceful closing of this Shabbat 😊
