A new adventure is on the horizon

Skinny me. I was 17 and having a graduation party. Yes, I look 12.

 If I was Catholic and went to the confessional I’d be saying something like “Forgive me father for I have sinned. It’s been 92 days since my last blog post.” I knew it was long but I’ve never gone three months.

What have I been up to? Nothing. Just work. And being a fat lazy loaf. I didn’t walk a lick this summer, and the weather was mostly beautiful. I went to chair yoga maybe twice. I do not look forward to going to the doctor October 10. I will get read the riot act. She’ll probably complain about all my numbers even  though I’m basically eating 80% vegetarian.

Ce la vie.

I’ve been searching for ways to get myself motivated since I was sick. I needed a goal. So I picked a really expensive one. ICELAND.

Clearly I cannot walk to Iceland. If I had a couple months I could walk to Mexico. But the heat, yikes.

I’ve been wanting to do something BIG. I’m alone way too much and my handful of friends have their own lives. So basically I work. All the time. And lately when I travel it’s for work. I cannot escape it.

One night at the theatre I was telling my sister-in-law about it and she asked what I was considering and I told her a few things. One was a cruise. However, if you’re a solo traveler everything is nearly twice the price. She has cruised before. The Caribbean, Mexico, Alaska. Actually, like my friend Angel, she is well traveled. She said what were you looking at. I’m not much into beaches and heat. My reply is I was thinking north, like Greenland. Or Iceland. She was interested and started searching much better than I ever could.

It kind of went away for awhile and then she got some marketing stuff in the mail from the cruise lines. 28 Days to Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Canada. We talked about it. 28 days is a long time. But the payoff s big. Three countries, white nights, maybe a glacier … So we took her coupons and went to AAA, talked about it, and decided that we were doing it. I hope we don’t kill each other by the end of 28 days together. 

One of the downsides is 4 days ocean travel with no stops. You can see that most of the stops are on the way back. I better load up my Kindle with books. There are 6 stops in Iceland, two in Greenland, and 7 in coastal Canada. 

I hear wi-fi is expensive, so I won’t be spending time on the net. Just how do you pack for 28 days? Sure you can wear clothes multiple days, but 28? Be reasonable. I don’t have that much underwear.

I don’t know what our excursions will be just yet. I’m going for nature, scenery, and maybe art. Bring on the whales and puffins! I also plan to be up at midnight to watch the sunset and rise. The 24 hours of light is on the solstice, so we’ll just miss it. But it will be close.

So now I have something to train for. Walking, hiking, and all round improving my stamina for the trip to Iceland. The blog posts should be more frequent. With my jobs it will be hard to post daily, I’m hoping a weekend wrap up. We’ll see how that goes.

Then, while on my epic adventure, I’ll chronological my trip just like I do every time. But this time I’ll be typing off line, and just cutting/pasting when I have internet service.

volkssport on the d&l

 

Today I hosted the Volkssport walk on the D&L trail. It began in downtown Easton at the Forks of the Delaware trailhead. Traffic wasn't bad so I arrived at about 9:20. I didn't expect anyone at all, but if someone did show it would be about 9:45. So I walked around the park taking pictures. It looked like it was going to pour

I was headed back to my car when I heard my name. It was Dave. Apparently he text me but I didn't hear it. He and Mike ate on South Fourth Street and just arrived. We waited till 10. Nobody else came. 

 This is the biggest turtle we saw. The littles jumped in the water. Mama taught them well. Stay away from humans.

Although I need group walking to get my lazy ass moving I hate walking with other people because I am very slow and I stop a lot. Frankly, I feel like a burden. Yeah, I know my head is getting in my way to wellness. Anybody who has read more than three entries on this blog knows that. The guys wanted to go to Hugh Moore Park they were going to the Canal Museum.  I knew I couldn't do a 10K. It's about 5 to the museum and then 5 back.

I stayed with them till we met up with the canal at the edge of Hugh Moore Park. We took the group picture and them I headed back. I'm sure they finished the museum tour before I even got to my car!

I took some pictures of locks, gears, ruins and some interesting railroad bridges on my way back. It was hard to avoid the poison ivy. 

By this point the sun was coming out and there was great reflections in the water. Five minutes after I reached the car the heavens opened up. And just as quickly stopped.

Positives:

• I went and I walked. I could have easily gone home 
• My socks didn't fall into my shoes because of the miracle socks Bonnie told me about. They are expensive but they stayed put.

Now I'm going to try and watch George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck on Broadway via CNN. Wish me luck. 

Miles/Steps:    6,800 steps according to my phone.
Weather:          sunny, mid 70s. Overcast at start. Sunnier at finish

Wildlife:           Bullfrog. Big and little turtle family. Again, heard so many birds.

jacobsburg with pam

This morning I met Pam at the Rt. 33 Park and Ride and we went to Jacobsburg to walk. It was fairly empty for a Friday morning, but I think school isn't out yet for most. Mostly we saw people walking dogs.

Immediately we saw that they were doing reno along the creek banks along the Henry's Woods trail. It was all fenced off in orange snow fence. 

There were periodic breaks where they build gravel entrances into the creek. Some, like the one above, were flat and you could walk or roll right in. The water was fairly shallow. Other's had wide shallow "stairs" that you had to go down. 

We stayed on that path until the far parking lot. Then we crossed the bridge and started coming back the other side. I didn't have my walking stick and we came to the sign that said "Hazardous Trail" -- rocks, roots, steep inclines, the whole 9 yards. Of course we continued. Eventually we got the the problem area. There were steps. I thought we might go down them and pick up a creek trail. No such luck. We went back up the stairs and back the way we came in.

Miles/Steps:    7,091 steps according to my phone.
Weather:          sunny, mid 80s. Shady at start. Sunny at finish

Wildlife:           a lot: 2 chipmunks. Bullfrog. little frog. at least 3 swallowtails. Mouse. Heard so many birds.

Bathrooms:      I-4.5  The bathrooms are now co-ed. There is a sign that says restroom with a boy and a girl. There were urinals in both. I toyed with giving mine a 5 but the locks were less than stellar. The handle lock didn't push in, and the turn nob didn't go all the way. I had a great fear someone was going to walk in.

 

reset outdoors

 

Last night I did a “community” walk with Reset Outdoors. These are the same people that held that one-day event at NCC, and the 7-week event at NCC.  We had a total of eight people. Three were from Reset.

We met at the pool at 5:30, and walked the big hill down to the Monocacy Way Trail. Then headed to Paint Mill Road. They turned around and head back, but this time off-trailing a lot with little side paths. We had to cross the railroad tracks to enter the Illicks Mill Nature Trail. We stuck close to the creek. When we reached the park, we headed down the main trail back to Monococay Way and back up the steep hill to the parking lot. I was the last one up. We finished around 7.

Miles/Steps:    2-2.5 mile round trip. I’m guessing. I no longer have a fit-bit and my phone tells me nothing useful.
Weather:         overcast, low 60s, breezy

Wildlife:           two bunnies, one doe, then two does, three male mallards came in for a landing on the Monocacy, and two very fat ground hogs.

memorial day stroll

Monday I had just finished writing about yard work Sunday when I got a craving for lasagna.  It would not go away. Weirder was it was about 70 degrees out. Lasagna is winter food.

I head into the kitchen and found noodles. No meet. No cheese. Just noodles and veggies. And sour milk. I cannot make lasagna with that. I did not want to take the car out. That left me with one option. I had to walk to the grocery store. Would it be open?

So I did. I didn’t take my cart because I was going for cheese and ricotta. That’s it. I’m only eating meat out. This would be a veggie lasagna. I’ve got to eat more veggies. I stopped once going down. Multiple times coming back.

The store was not only open, but busy. I walked home and then proceeded to make a 9x13 pan of lasagna. Yes, enough to feed at least 8 people. One layer was broccoli, one cauliflower, and one peppers. The peppers were a mistake. And not cooking the tomatoes was a mistake too. The saw tasted raw. But it was delicious and I ate two slices. The rest was cut up for the freezer, and one portion for Sharon. But I might eat that as leftovers.

Miles/Steps:    1.5 mile round trip
Weather:          sunny, nearly 70

a few calories burned

BEFORE: You can’t see the biggest change because I shot from the edge of the patio. 

I had planned to participate in no-mow May, but about two weeks ago I caved. I was just waiting for the citation from the city. It then promptly rained for two solid weeks. I can’t image what it would like like had I not mowed.

So my nieces husband is my lawn dude this summer.  And I’m planning on working him hard. There’s some projects that need doing, that I’ve put off. Partly because I’m lazy. Partly because I don’t like doing ANYTHING alone. Blame it on being the youngest child. I always had playmates. They keep me motivated.

Let me give you the lay of the land: On the left of the deck is some hostas and a pink peony. It’s flowers are tight because it’s protected by a dying tree azalea. The right of the deck some bushes. Not native. At this point the deck is empty. 

I’m standing at the edge of the deck. To the right of me is a tree azalea I gave my mom for Mother's Day in the mid-80s. I few blooms happened this year, but it’s on life support.  To the left of me are 3-nearly 50 year old azaleas. They are white. They were amazing in their heyday, but not recently. They’ve taken a beating with the snow, and I have a hard time weeding them. One was 100% dead. The second at least 75%. And the third only slightly better. They bloomed this year; barely.

On the red fence side is some irises (that are now done), another still budding pink peony, a huge rose of Sharon, and a forsythia. (My nephew cut that at least in half last year. I think it grew three times bigger.) The wash post sits in the middle of the yard. On the right side — in the yard — is a red peony. It was opening the last time I cut the grass. It was pretty for about 5 seconds and then the rain beat it down on the ground. I always say I’m going to buy forms and I never do. 

On the natural fence side is mostly weeds now. There is a couple hostas, and one sedum has survived. But the invasive weeds have overtaken everything. And the more I pull the more they multiply.  Frankly, I’ve given up.

So I picked up J. The first thing we did was prune the front of the Rose of Sharon. Clearly my plants ate their Wheaties over the winter.  Then he set to work weed whacking and mowing. I got to work pulling vines. There were at least four different kinds. Some with shiny leaves, some with grape leaves, and the prickly ones that almost looked like flowers. 

I have long stopped taking yard waste to the compost center. I’ve been putting the brush in front of the garage. I think the neighborhood stray cats love it.  Outside my gate is the compost bin, a gorgeous clematis, and two areas of weeds. I have tried over the years to plant things, but they don’t stick. After J was done weed whacking back there I decided that was going to be the new green compost pile. As long as it doesn’t have food in it, it should be fine. Maybe it will keep down the weeds. Though I’d really like a week of sun to dry them out before rain. I don’t want anything to root.

OMG. It’s starting to look like a yard and we are only an hour in.

Then J get’s to the deck. I was weeding here. How much of this is weeds? Everything but that tree. He puts his hand out and say’s “this dead tree” as a two inch branch breaks off in his hand. It’s was kindling. I told him to prune out the dead. There was one branch left. I had a decision to make. Keep a dead Sussical tree or cut it down. I told him to cut it. I hauled everything to the “compost” pile.

One decision made. Then he say’s are you finishing that dead bush by hand. And I said no. It’s’ve taken off the rose colored glasses, I cannot save it. Pull it before I change my mind.

He did. 

Then he brought up the patio furniture. If I have money left from my kitchen I’m putting in a new deck. The person who put in this one sucked. The one my brother made lasted 30+ years. This one is less than 10.

So now it’s time to buy plants. It’s hard because it’s all sun, all day. They will all die. And it’s hard to know going into something that you’re just wasting money.

Positives:

1) The yard is no longer the worse in the neighborhood

2) I spent a hour out there this morning doing puzzles. I actually left the house, albeit I didn’t go far.

3) The birds had a field day last night with the worms and bugs. All-you-can-eat buffet time at my house.

4) I spent 2.5 hours outside.

 

memorial walk

Every year the walking group has what they call a memorial walk. It's usually well attended, and there is a little ceremony where they read the names of everyone from that has died over the last 40 years. Thankfully, it's maybe 30. There were some significant deaths this year. 

They have a little memorial in a park. But that park is being renovated. A member rescued our plaque before the renovations began and will put it back when it's over. The event was relocated this year to the Palmer Park in Skippack. I went. I decided to go because I was fresh off the trip to New England and I thought I'd strike while the iron was hot. But I'm still sick. So I did more of a tapping while the iron was hot.

This is the same park they used for the 40th Anniversary picnic so the route was the same. You remember the park? The one with the toilets 12 inches off the floor? I went walked with the 5K-ers and did a loop thru a development then bailed. I was a block behind everyone else. I hung out at the pavilion. When I saw them coming, I joined again and walked the last section. I might have walked two miles total.

After the walk there was the ceremony and lunch — baby hoagies from Wawa and pretzels from the Italian Market. (Peg and Marion live in Philly.) And a smaller group went out for another 5K. After than an additional member went for a bike ride.

Positives:

1) I went. Damn I tried to talk myself out of it.

2) I walked. I dropped out, but I did renter. That's a win.

3) I didn't get lost on the way home. I tried to trick the GPS by going down Allentown Rd. It really wanted me to go to 309. On a Saturday afternoon. Joke was on me. For a while it was quiet. Then suddenly she telling me to turn right. I'm thinking it didn't get the memo. What it was telling me was that Allentown Rd. was closed ahead. Oops.

4) I didn't get stuck on the extremely short toilet.