After I got home from running some errands last Friday, I shut the garage door and didn’t leave the house again until 7:40 AM on Monday.
I have little desire to go out of the house if it’s not a hike, groceries, or beer shopping. I have little need for the American public, and the American public has little need for me. It’s your classic win-win sitch between a couple of assholes.
In fact, as we close in on Month Four of me being blissfully ignorant, I recently made the decision to deactivate my Instagram account for a while. I don’t particularly like my media to be social, and too much of the “real world” started penetrating my Spermicidic Barrier of Blissful Ignorance. It probably won’t be forever, but you do what you gotta do when your mind needs a break.
Come Monday, I was back in the woods for another lumber and was hopeful to complete the loop without micro-spikes. But not hopeful enough to not throw them in my pack.
That decision proved to be wise because as soon I hit the real trails, I discovered them to still be covered with thick, pockmarked ice. Shit.
I grabbed my spikes out of my pack, leaned up against a trail sign, slid them over my hikers, and then crunched on down the icy trail, now with 99.9% more traction.
There were sections of the trail that were completely void of ice or snow, but spikes were needed and treasured for about 75% of the 5.21-mile lumber.
Other than varying the loop, Tuesday’s 5.26-mile hike was nearly an exact copy, so no use blathering about it.
Wednesday morning has brought heavy rain showers, melting snow, and the return of a small lake to our waterlogged backyard. I LOVE hiking in the rainy woods, but not in the icy, slippy, slushy, snowy, AND rainy woods, so I am taking today off from “Doing Stuff.”
I wish I could say that the week’s hikes, warmer temps, melting snow, and the prospect of spring coming have helped my mood, but after a lifetime of dealing with my brain, I know the only thing I can do is keep going, and wait for it to lift; hopefully not taking too many innocent bystanders down with me before it does.
Later.