SHABBAT SMILES ~Lake Hike

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.

No go.

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's the only chance for a pleasant walk in the Park.

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.

YES! A parking spot, off the street – ((((THANK YOU)))), YESHUA!

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 😊

A nice walk after home chores were completed.

Something new; the Band-Aids have got to be replaced with cotton patches ...

Giant Schnauzer dog.

Busy squirrel & marching geese.

Businesses are setting up candy stations for kids walking the Lake Trail in halloween costumes.

I sat on bench for a few minutes, just watching people & animals; reflecting on Yeshua's creative abilities (He is Creator).

The trees are flamboyantly strutting their stuff. LOL

These Park squirrels, preparing for Winter, have a Curious George characteristic; 'who's in my neighborhood' 😉

A Komondor & Bouvier des Flanders mix-bred puppy.

A Shetland pony being prepared for its afternoon activity.

The popping leaf colors; pistachio, yellow, & crimson red – across Nichols Boulevard Street, is very perky.

Geese are everywhere in the Park.

The contrasting canary yellow & wine-red burgundy leaves is eye-catching.

The half-naked tree ahead, was doing the Fall Burlesque Shimmy. Hahaha.

I LIKE THIS; pretty orange leaves in various stages of showiness.

Geese, ducks, and gulls ...

Muscovy duck ... so ugly, they are interesting; Iridescent green back plumage; it's saving grace.

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 😊

BE A BETTER PERSON ~ An Example: Keanu Reeves

He was abandoned by his father at 3 years old and grew up with 3 different stepfathers.

He is dyslexic.

His dream of becoming a hockey player was shattered by a serious accident.

His daughter died at birth. 

His wife died in a car accident.

His best friend, River Phoenix, died of an overdose.

His sister has leukemia.

Keanu did not break: he donated $5 million to the clinic that treated his sister, he refused to shoot (to be with her), and created the Leukemia Foundation, donating significant sums from each fee for the film.

And with everything that has happened, Keanu Reeves never misses an opportunity to help people in need. When he was filming the movie "The Lake House," he overheard the conversation of two costume assistants; One cried because he would lose his house if he did not pay $20,000 and on the same day Keanu deposited the necessary amount in the woman's bank account; He also donated stratospheric sums to hospitals.

In 2010, on his birthday, Keanu walked into a bakery and bought a brioche with a single candle, ate it in front of the bakery, and offered coffee to people who stopped to talk to him. He can just eat a hot dog in the park, sitting between ordinary people.

Actor, film director, film producer and musician Keanu Charles Reeves (Keanu Charles Reeves), missed the first 20 minutes of the party dedicated to the end of filming of his new film in one of the clubs in New York. He waited patiently in the rain to be let in. No one recognized him. The club owner said: "I didn't even know Keanu was standing in the rain waiting to be let in - he didn't say anything to anyone."

After winning astronomical sums for the Matrix trilogy, the actor donated more than $50 million to the staff who handled the costumes and special effects - the true heroes of the trilogy, as he called them.

He also gave a Harley-Davidson to each of the stunt doubles. A total expense of several million dollars. And for many successful films, he has even given up 90% of his salary to allow the production to hire other stars.

In 1997 some paparazzi found him walking one morning in the company of a homeless man in Los Angeles, listening to him and sharing his life for a few hours. "He easily communicates with homeless people on the street and helps them".

Most stars when they make a charitable gesture, they declare it to all the media. He has never claimed to be doing charity, he simply does it as a matter of moral principles and not to look better in the eyes of others.

"He travels by public transport": 0 ego.

This man could buy everything, and instead every day he gets up and chooses one thing that cannot be bought: To be a good person.