it's been a full month since I posted.

 It's been a full month since I posted. That must be some sort of a record for this blog. I did do a wonderful walk with Pam and Lisa the Friday of Labor Day weekend but I never got it posted. I've been averaging about 3000 steps a day. That's just short of sitting on my ample ass all day.

Why?

School started. I've been so busy prepping for school, and then 5 classes. Plus book deadlines, Writing Wrongs weekend, a hurricane, taking care of the twins ... that I ignored everything. The cupboards were bare. The house dirty. The laundry piled up. The dishes look like an episode of Hoarders. I was tired and cranky and stressed.  It was a perfect storm where I drop all the balls I juggle and they crash to the floor. Pam sent a text last week asking if we were walking Friday. I turned her down. I just wanted to sleep or do nothing.

I think I've got it back under control. My ego took a hit the first two weeks of school. (Technology failed me at every turn. I wasn't as prepared as I thought. Different modalities. Long commutes.) The Labor Day weekend I was at Writing Wrongs. It was relentless. 

My school schedule sucks. Monday it's 11-2 with a 45 minute commute and 1/2 hour office hours. Tuesday is Hell-day. 9-11:30 on Zoom.  2-5 online then 6-9 in person plus short commute and office hours. Thursday is 9-11:30 with an hour+ commute. Last weekend I just relaxed. I planned my time and got everything done with a bit of time leftover.

Pam and I will be walking Fridays. Hopefully I can get back to Saturday and Sunday walks. 

Speaking of that last walk, September 3, Pam needed to stay local. We also needed to talk about the book project for her father-in-law. So we did the Historic Bethlehem "Farmlands" walking tour which took us all over the southside. We met at the Banana Factory. The walk actually started at the library, but I wasn't walking over the bridge. The stops on the bridge were for the canal, river, and railroad. We headed out 2nd Avenue and then stopped at the Steel Workers Memorial. I showed them where my daddy's brick was and how I pretty much demanded money from my siblings for it.

We also listened at the stops for the Banana Factory and the train station. Then we headed up the bridge ramp to the Wilbur mansion.

Next stops were Nativity Church, the Sayre mansion, an overview of Delaware Avenue and Third Street, and the Linderman-Schwab Mansion and St. Luke's. Then we turned around and headed down the fourth street hill and heard about the flat iron buildings, firehouses, and finally ended up at St. Michael's cemetery.

The cemetery didn't look as bad as it once did. They cleaned it up. But I think they removed a lot of stones. The cross from the Walker Evans photo was missing so I acted as a stand-in. Didn't work.

Since the tour was over we headed down to Hayes, and then returned the Greenway. There was a concrete pad on the Greenway. I think they are getting another sculpture.

Updates:

I'm on my 22nd week of Noom, still no progress. I'm not doing the work. My brain has given up hope that anything will stick. I'm just going thru the motions. I found out this week that my sister-in law and her daughters are also doing Noom and dropping pounds. One lost fifty. If I was losing weight I'd have a different attitude... I guess... I hope. 

I still have ducking bed bugs. They are coming on Friday to kill them ... again. I'm supposed to be hopeful and happy that the bugs they are finding are dead. I'm not. Pat is still being bit. The little mothers are still alive and well and hiding there snarky little asses. I think I need to toss every item in this house to get rid of them. And maybe not even then. I think they are in the baseboards. Probably would need to fumigate the empty house.

I'm hoping things get better. I'm hoping to get out there and walk everyday by the end of the year. I have at least twenty pounds to lose before April. Maybe 30.