As mentioned, I took the day off from lumbering on Wednesday so we could drop B at the airport in Detroit. That was pretty much a 5.5-hour round-trip drive in the rain that included 2 minutes of tearful hugs and goodbyes on the road outside his gate amongst the throngs of air travelers.
I wrote a post and then decided it was too dark and too much about things I promised myself that I wouldn’t write about here anymore.
Let’s just say I’ve been in a deep funk (not the good kind) for about 4 or 5 days, and am struggling to find a good word to say about anything. So, rather than have you think even less of me than you rightfully already do, I’ve shelved it. This makes my second non-published post in the last few days. You’re welcome.
Not to honk my own platypus, but I do believe I set a new start time record for this morning’s lumber when my feetz hit the trail at 6:37 AM. There was much rejoicing.
My theory was trifold: Beat the heat, beat anyone hiking with a dog (no offense, but Fido ain’t great for critter spottin’), and lastly, I figure the sun was up at 6:10, so I might as well get going.
I woke up this morning at 5:45, and figured that an extra 15 minutes of sleep was pretty unnecessary, so I rolled my ass out of bed, fed Lola, had some coffee, fetched my gear, dumped out, and was on the trail at 6:50.
I woke up early Wednesday morning to some showers moving through the area. I also woke up to find out that our irrigation system was running, and I felt like a real piece of shit for wasting water as it rained. Then I remember that there is a long list of reasons I’m a piece of shit, so I shrugged my shoulders and poured a cup of coffee.
I was back on the trails at 7:03 AM on Tuesday to lumber out another loop of woodsy walking while doing my best to fill my camera’s SD card with nature nubbins and critter pics.
The morning was damp and humid under a slate grey sky that does its best to monkey with my shots and force me to over-familiarize myself with Lightroom’s shadow slider.
As previously mentioned in the last post about nothing, I took the weekend off from lumbering, enjoyed the spring weather, watched football, and hung out with Wifey. B was also home for Mother’s Day, so that was a bonus. It was all pretty swell. Well, other than the Spurs losing yet again in league play. I hate them.
With all that out of the way, I was eager to get back in the woods to burn off the weekend’s bad choices.
STORY NUMBER ONE
For Friday’s hike, I waffled on taking my ancient Canon s95 point and shoot, and the ALMOST as old Fuji x70 instead of my normal set-up. In the end, I opted for the Fuji at the last minute for some reason, and was soon hurling myself down the road toward the trails.
The week of lumbering has been damn good so far, and dare I say I have been feeling better mentally and physically than I have since roughly last October. *knocks on every piece of wood in the house*
I woke on Tuesday morning at 5:55 to the soothing sounds of a steady spring rain falling. I flirted with the idea of preempting my 6AM alarm, farting, rolling over and going back to bed, happy to spend a little longer under the covers as the rain pelted the windows. Instead, I turned off the alarm, farted, and got out of bed.
Lola was fed, coffee was downed, dumps were taken, and soon I was on my way to the trails, eager to get some soggy miles in my feetz.
