March 6, 2004

This Day in My History

Sign the "Million for Marriage" petition

TODAY's QUOTE

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast.

~ Paul Scott Mowrer

Yesterday's Entries

2001: The Right to Know
2002: Stick-to-it-ivism
2003: The White Rabbit

TODAY's FOOD

Breakfast: Toast with peanutbutter
Lunch: Asparagus Chicken (in a Chinese restaurant)
Dinner: Leftover couscous, salad

TODAY's READ

Blood and Thunder
(David Gerrold finally writes a new book!)

TODAY on TV

Friends
Will & Grace
The Apprentice

Getting to know me....

I am sweet, like Sugar.

I am all sweetness and light; fluffy bunnies and dancing fairies; happiness and joy. Too much of me will make you sick.

What Flavour Are You?

THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES...

6 March 2004

If the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I’m well on my way.

My friend Barb and I went for a walk today. We’ve done this walk before. There is a lovely lake in a place called "Lagoon Valley." The path to the lake parallels the freeway for the first half mile or so, and though it passes by a nice little creek and is lined, at this time of year, by trees just coming into or going out of blossom, the constant traffic noise reminds you that you are no more than a few steps from civilization.

In fact, along the path we came to a couple of little altars, those shrines that are now popping up at the site of deaths along a road. Barb told me that recently a car came spinning out of control over the embankment, crashed through the fence and ended up in the creek. Apparently a hiker on the path was killed, along with the driver of the automobile (who had been drinking). Autopsy reports showed that one of the deaths was by drowning and the other was from the force of the accident itself. So it was nice to get to a bend in the road and head away from the freeway.

I meant to wear my pedometer today and am kicking myself because I didn’t. I’d love to have a reason why my feet want to go take a vacation at the moment. Barb thinks it’s about a mile from the parking lot to the lake, we walked along the path to the end of the lake and then, on my suggestion, decided to walk around the lake as well. I know that it’s slightly over 2 miles around the lake.

So I’m thinking that we probably walked between 5-6 miles. Next time I’ll know better. Despite wearing my walking shoes and my $15 walking socks, I raised a blister on one toe so was kind of limping by the time we got back to the car.

But what a terrific walk it was.

This is absolutely the best time to start a walking program. Especially with camera in hand.

First there were the blossoms along the side of the road.
	Then we came to the little arboretum, ablaze in color with daffodils, jonquils and purple flowers.
When we left the arboretum, we encountered some deer grazing on the lush green grass on the hillside. They seemed unfazed to come across all these people looking at them (we were there and were joined by a group of four other women as well).

The last time we did this walk, we went from the parking lot to the lake, turned around and came back. Since that time they have added a fence, so to get to the lake you have to walk farther, which we did. We had lots of encounters with Canada geese. It seems you can’t go anywhere without encountering Canada geese these days.

But Canada geese were only the beginning. There were pelicans, red-winged blackbirds, regular geese, all sorts of ducks, turtles, and people out riding horses. When Barb was there recently, she came across some sea otters in an area where there had also been some activity by beavers. But we didn’t see otters or beavers, so that may be something for another day.

We did, however, see a little kid with a bag of crumbs wanting to feed ducks. Instantly, anything with feathers came running, flying, or waddling as fast as they could. The little kids were surrounded by birds and seemed to be having a terrific time.

geesesm.jpg (92073 bytes)

When we finally limped back to the car and began reviewing the walk, Barb said that she hasn’t gotten out as much since her walking partner got a job, so for the time being (until I get another job), we’re going to make this a weekly thing. Next week she’s coming here and we’re going to go through the university arboretum, which will be gorgeous at this time of year.

Now that I’m home and have been immobile for awhile, plunking my butt in this typing chair, my muscles are screaming whenever I try to get up, which shows me how much more of this I need to do.

Today was a great start. I am looking forward to our next excursion. Only 994 miles to go on that first 1,000 miles!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

horsessm.jpg (103702 bytes)

This was my favorite photo of the day, mostly
because I "fixed it in PhotoShop." The sky was
a dull white, and I added the blue and the clouds to it.

All photos from this walk, in larger size, can be found here.

For more photos, please visit My Fotolog and My FoodLog