A Temporary Bachelor...Again

With Brugger going to Michigan so regularly for parental maintenance visits (as well as her frequent artsy-craftsy weekends), I'm getting to play temporary bachelor more than I have, well, since I played full-time bachelor. I've always been self-sufficient, so I don't mind it so much, though I do miss her an awful lot when she's gone for extended spells (two weeks this time around). She had the usual pre-dawn flight this morning, which meant we had to get up at 3:00 a.m. so I could drive her to the airport in Greensboro. That right there is the hardest part for me — dragging my ass out of bed at such an hour and pretending to be functional.

 

On occasion, I've turned her early-morning departures into geocaching opportunities, and I could have done that this morning had I felt so inclined; however, most of the Greensboro caches are in places I didn't really want to deal with predawn (I'd probably end up with security officers or honest-to-god cops coming to check me out). I had a big-ass mug of coffee with me on the drive, but that was hopelessly insufficient, and I needed more. Plus, I was getting quite hungry, so  decided to head on back home and figure out something for breakfast. I settled for a couple of perfect boiled eggs (boiled for three minutes and twenty seconds), a piece of toast, and another half-pot of coffee. It was a nice, cool morning — the first in recent memory — so I enjoyed a predawn breakfast out on the back deck.

 

I run three to four miles every day, usually mid-morning, but today, I figured why wait? So, just as the sky began to brighten, I took to the road and hoofed it for a goodly distance. As a novelty, it was very nice being out there in relative isolation; for most of my run, no one else was out there on foot (I do occasionally see them before sun-up), and very few cars passed by. It's not something I'd do frequently, I can tell you, but I do enjoy such early-morning experiences on occasion. I surely wouldn't mind going out there when it's cooler than mid-morning (it was chillier outside than inside, for a change), but since I retired from the day job, I'm not quite the early-riser I used to be.

 

I took a few photos along the way, so here they are. My phone camera automatically adjusts the lighting, so the images are much brighter than the scenery appeared to my eyes at the time. It was a right booty-full sunrise.

Looking back toward Casa di Rodan

Ahead toward Lake Lanier

Mist rolling in over the lake

A booty-full sunrise on the way

Misty Morning Ramble

Every day, usually early morning, I go on a several-mile walk, typically around our neighborhood, which offers plenty of nice scenery (especially around Lake Lanier) and (gasp) many serious hills. Since last January, I haven't missed a day of putting in at least two and a half miles, usually more like three to five miles. After forty years of working a desk job with only occasional bouts of serious exercise (usually while geocaching on weekends), since I retired, I've decided not to settle for a sedentary lifestyle and suffer the likely attendant health complications. The exercise has done wonders for my blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure (though this past election has hiked it back up higher than it oughta be), and all that good stuff.

It wasn't very cold this morning, but the misty precipitation made it a bit damp. Still, there was a nice atmosphere out there — almost eerie — which I augmented by playing some mellow, Hearts-of-Space-type music along the way. It's supposed to turn into real rain tomorrow, which may mean I'll be hoofing it around the house most of the day. It's nowhere near as enjoyable as the out of doors, but I've had to do it plenty of times. The biggest challenge is avoiding tripping over cats.

Happy trails.

It's Just Overkill

After my morning walk, I planned to spend the rest of the day writing. I ended up taking a much longer walk than usual, and when I got home, it was lunchtime. So, I decided to build a fire in the fire pit and cook a couple of hot dogs for lunch. They were yummy. But while out there, I realized the yard needed some serious work, and... before I knew what had happened... I found myself doing serious yard work.

After that, my arms fell off, but I've still gotta write. I hope my laptop takes good dictation.

The Everyday Walkies

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 people. 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 townfolk 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.

About to embark on a chilly-weather excursion

A closer look, and you might see a few hundred turkey buzzards gathered around Lake Lanier, just down the street from home.

Another view of the lake