One of the absolute highlights of having moved back to my original homeplace
in Martinsville is that the neighborhood is so conducive to walking. There are
lots of woods, beautiful homes, big hills (which I make a point
not to shy away from), and some very nice folks. When I was
growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Martinsville had a large industrial and
commercial base — primarily furniture and textiles — which kept most of the
town employed, and with a remarkably high standard of living. During those
days, there were more millionaires per square mile in Martinsville than
anywhere in the United States. Sadly, those big employers are long gone, and
for many years, Martinsville was damn near a ghost town. The place is still
largely a shadow of what it once was, but there are enough entrepreneurs and
creative individuals who are dedicated to bringing a new renaissance to town
that have helped reverse the negative trend. And there's still some old money
floating around that has provided a bulwark against the influx of too many
ghosts.
So, back to my original point, I walk two to three miles every day, usually
mid-morning, and apart from occasional weather-related cancelations, I have
managed to keep to the schedule religiously. Combined with a couple of weeks
of barely being able to eat, thanks to complications from having a tooth
yanked (see
Fun and Games with Tooth Extractions," December 14, 2023), I've lost several pounds. Whether I can keep them off is the eternal
question, but it would be nice to remain shed of some of that extra weight
that just plain exercise doesn't excise.
Sometimes I walk in the woods, as there are a few decent trails around, some
official, some less so. I own a plethora of geocaches in the area, and I try
to keep them well-maintained. I've found a few entertaining decorative items
in nearby yards, clearly indicating some creative residents (see photos). And
the long walks are great for listening to audiobooks, which have about become
my primary means of "reading," since my eyes don't hold up for long spells of
usage the way they used to. I've gotten through Ian Fleming's entire
James Bond 007 series,
Stephen King & Richard Chizmar's Gwendy series, John Scalzi's Daikaiju Preservation Society, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Peter Benchley's Jaws, William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, Mark Frost's
Secret History of Twin Peaks and
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, F. Paul Wilson's The Keep, and I'm currently listening to the second of four books in friend/fellow
author Leverett Butt's Guns of the Waste Land series. Many of
these are "re-reads," but they're books I've been looking to revisit for the
longest time, and what an enjoyable opportunity to get back to them it's been.
Here's hoping a tolerable winter, walking-weather-wise.
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| About to embark on a chilly-weather excursion |
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| A closer look, and you might see a few hundred turkey buzzards gathered around Lake Lanier, just down the street from home. |
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| Another view of the lake |
