Smile for Me

My hubby thinks I'm weird--okay, there's no need to go into detail here, but he married me, therefore he is stuck with me!

Back on topic: When I go on my 4.25 mile daily walk, I tend to greet the people on the walking path: walkers, joggers, and bikers. Usually I give a small wave--raising my hand-- and a 'good morning' said with a smile. I don't want to interrupt their workout, but I want there to be an awareness and an acknowledgment that I saw them, therefore they saw me.

My theory is that if my cold, dead body is found, they will think, "Hey, that's that weird lady who wears a red sweatshirt and insists upon intruding into my la-la world by being cheerful."

Then again, there are theories that people who are targeted are those who won't make eye contact, or are so into their tunes they don't know what the heck is going on around them.

I'm aware. I see them.

In other words--I could identify them in a line-up. :-) **bwahahaha**

Anyway, I've been doing this for a couple of years now. Sometimes people glare at me. Sometimes they smile. Sometimes they lift their hand in greeting, but they catch themselves wondering why their hand was up. And, of course, many times I'm ignored . . . especially by women when they travel in pairs.

Go figure. Like I'm a threat to their womanhood. *sheesh*

Every now and again, I hit gold.

One was an older gentleman by the name of Ron. I usually see him walking M-F on the trail, and mainly in passing as we are headed different directions. Sometimes, if he's ahead of me, I'll play catch-up to push myself harder to see if I can make up the distance to chat with him.

Another gentleman was Kenyon who I passed as he jogged. He's a slow jogger and I'm a quick walker. I haven't seen him in awhile, but his workout hours might not be the same as mine.

Then there is the lady jogger who stopped to alert me to a bobcat in the area . . . she didn't alert the next two walkers as I followed her along the path, just me. I don't know her name, but she recognized me as I greeted her numerous times while we worked out.

And just this last Saturday, I met Jacob.

Jacob is a serious biker--he wears the spandex bike clothes and he's riding seven days a week. Usually all I have time for is "Morni--" and a hand wave before he zooms away. As I said, I don't want to interrupt anyone's workout, but I do want to greet them.

But this Saturday was different when Jacob stopped his bike to introduce himself.

I'm still smiling about it.

I'm not doing much, just greeting the people I meet along the way. And I like to think that my greeting makes them smile just a little and approach their day a little differently.

Over the years, I've noticed that nastiness is contagious. But then again, so is cheerfulness. Why not spread a little joy along the way?

Later, Peeps!

Dreary Monday, Monday

YAY!!

We survived the weekend!

Eight teen- or tween-agers is exhausting! Thank goodness there was no sleepover. I doubt if any of them would have slept.

I had everything planned down to the minute, so of course, it didn't work out like I'd planned! :-)

We had a couple of people get lost on the way to our house. . . even though I posted the address AND a Google map link. They made the mistake of turning too soon, which would take them into a totally different subdivision.

Erm, it's really, really easy to find our house.

We split the girls between two cars and got them to the movie, Catching Fire with enough time to get them settled with three big tubs of popcorn and various beverages.

The movie was really good, though the ending was . . . typical. So many movies end with a 'non-ending', which means you have to watch the next installment. But the girls confirmed that this movie followed the book almost perfectly.

I thought the first movie Hunger Games was really slow, but it had to fill the viewer in to much of the backstory before getting into the 'real' story. Catching Fire started eight months after the first one ended and it drew me in immediately.

Instead of going to Hideaway for dinner (as I originally planned), we picked it up about an hour after we got home since the girls were full of popcorn (unplanned).

Prezzies, pizza, and eventually cake were interspersed with bouts of screaming, yelling, running, doors slamming, and bursts of maniacal giggling and laughter.

Everyone left by 8:30 and we were all in bed by 9 PM.

Sunday was quiet.

Monday I took the kidlet to school--we'd had freezing rain, but the roads were slick in places. I had no problem. . . until I went on my Walkies.

I discovered the bridge was icy.

 

 I did the flailing tango dance to save myself from falling, but managed to break my sunglasses instead of my leg/arm/head or insert various body part.

And then my phone died because I left Singing Monsters playing which along with Map My Walk managed to drain my battery and couldn't take a picture of my glasses until I got home to recharge my phone.

I wanted to do a selfie pouty face, but let's just say a woman of my advanced years without make-up on has no business taking a selfie.

Now, onward to plan Thanksgiving desserts and get a grocery list started.

Later, Peeps!

Two for Tuesday

I took this picture on my Monday morning walk. I'll apologize now for the grainy blurriness, but there is only so much you can do with a camera phone.

. . . and no, this isn't a Bigfoot sighting, though I have wondered if any of them live along my walking routes as there is sometimes an aroma of eau de Pepe le Pew!

Yeah, you're right, it's probably just a real skunk . . . or the hobo who lives in the woods.

Oh . . . hobo isn't technically correct, how about homeless man who rides a gas-powered bike along the 'no motorized vehicles' trail?

Here's the first picture. Can you even see the two birds wading?

 Here's the cropped picture and blown up version, avec graininess.

Okay, I'll let you know what they are since they are virtually impossible to see in my photos--there are two Great Blue Herons in this picture. I was pretty far away when I took this picture, but I could recognize them.

I've been up close and personal with a BB gun in my backyard when one of those buggers tried cleaning out my koi pond! I think my fish are too big. What do you think?

Later, Peeps!

Critter Tracks

After a nice, hard rain, there's a section of dirt and gravel that is near the bridge and curves around down to the creek. I've seen tracks and last week I decided to take a picture of them.

I know there are beavers and racoons along this creek because I've seen the coon and I've seen the toppled trees from the beavers. But I've also seen what I thought was a mink. And I'm sure there are opossums, since I've had them in my backyard about a mile away.

Here are the tracks:

Then I took a close-up of a pair and laid my key next to it to give me an idea of what size they were. My key measures 2 inches.

So then I start looking for images of what this critter might be and found these charts.

And no, they weren't dog tracks. The dog tracks usually are on parts of the trail that get muddy, but not this area. Since it was a weekday after a nice rain, I'm pretty sure these were uncontaminated.

Looking at these pictures on the second chart, I would guess that it was some sort of woodchuck, though its track pattern was more like the prints on the lower right corner. How about a weasel?

What do y'all think? Any suggestions?

Later, Peeps!

My Sunday--not so typical

Yesterday, I didn't get my walk in until early afternoon. And it was HOT, like fry an egg on the asphalt hot. Okay, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was one of the hottest day's this year, or maybe it just felt like it.

So I'm hoofing it around the trails with my ice cold water, which lasted like 30 minutes, and you do realize that I walk for 60 minutes, right? So the water becomes tepid at 30 minutes and then HOT at the 45 minute mark, but by then I've polished off the entire 1.5 pints of liquidy goodness.

Oh, and did I mention the wind?

Yeah, it was blowing so hard that I thought I was walking backward at times, it reminded me of the times when I was riding Buster around the area and we were flying down one side, but galloping into the wind took about 3X as long. Good times, good times.

And I bet you're wondering why it took me until afternoon to go on my walkies, well, it was simply because we actually went to church and then to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. Mimi's has a veggie frittata made with egg whites that was WON-DER-FUL! And turkey sausage. And fruit. Who would have thought turkey sausage was good?

Not me. But then again, sausage is all about spices and texture. Who cares what it's made with, right? Considering sausage used to be made from all the nasty stuff that no one wanted to eat.

And back to my heat stroke story  . . .

After eating a nice brunch, I had to start laundry which was the reason I didn't go for walkies until noon.
You want to know what's really gross about walking in the friggin' heat?

Sweat shins.

Yes, my friends, my shins sweat. They don't dew, glisten or what-have-you, they sweat as in beads of sweat. Like the bead of sweat that rolls down your spine until it gets sucked up by your butt crack type of sweating.

Er, is that TMI?

Too bad, this is what you get for a Monday morning.

You're probably wondering why I'm so scattered and flying off on various tangents, well, it's what happened two hours AFTER my heat stroke-induced walkies that did it.

My hubby and I drove my kidlet to camp.

And left her.

Last year, it was worse because we left town and flew to Vegas . . . and it was cooler in Vegas than it was here in Oklahoma. Poor kidlet didn't have any AC, though the did have fans in their cabins.

So the question for this week . . . What to do with myself for 5 days?? !!  Well, day 5 I'll be spending with my hubby since it's his birthday and I did ask to see Snow White and the Hunks . . . .er, HUNTSMAN. Sorry, but Chris Hemsworth is some serious eye candy!

To quote George Takai:   "Oh, my!"

And when I wrote this (Sunday night) I was also Skyping with a high School friend who was coming to town, IM'ing another old high school friend AND IM'ing a my writing buddy, Cyndi.

Don't you DARE say that I can't multitask!

Let's see what else I've accomplished Sunday:

• I refilled and organized the wine rack
• looked for my Lifetime WW pin (couldn't find it) :-(
• organized my hall closet
• finished laundry and ironing

Today, I need to--

• organize the freezer.
• check the pool chemicals
• fertilize my roses and trim
• toss the garden mulch
• pick up doggie poo
• take out the trash
• finish reading Brenda Novak book

Wow, I don't know what else to do? How about:

• reread TROLL and continue edits
• Plot DRAGON

Oh, so much to do and so little time to do it. Oh, and I can't eat much today because I intend to hit my goal tomorrow AM. Luckily, hubby is in meetings all day and into the evening and I don't have to cook for him. Green Monster smoothie here I come! Check out the recipe on Foodie Fridays!

And if I continue to blather on and on, I'll just get confused.

If you wondered, I wrote this blog as pure regurgitation of my thoughts. Now you know why I'm so nutso most of the time--there's just too much stuff going on inside my head.

Make them stop! Make the voices stop!

Just Kidding! I need those voices to tell me what to do . . . *tests finger against butcher knife blade*

Watch out, Peeps!

Cliff Swallows

A few months ago I commented on the barn swallows, well, I misidentified them (verified in a Field Guide for birds East of the Rockies). They are actually CLIFF SWALLOWS.

Pardon my mistake, but those silly birds must not have gotten the memo that there are NO CLIFFS to be had over most of Tulsa, OK. I still love watching these birds swooping and diving from their mud houses at the top of expressway pylons, skimming through the air to catch a variety of insect.

I've taken a few pictures on my walkies. The quality isn't that good due to 1) it being my phone camera, 2) I managed to gwark up my camera lens by sweating on it!

The evolution of a cliff swallow nest:  

And there you have it. The happy families.

Later, Peeps!

The Beavers are Back!

Today was early walkies day since the kidlet has Honor Choir practice at 7:10 on Tuesdays. I don't mind walking early especially since the time change has made it light enough to see. It isn't quite so creepy, ya know.

Anyhoo, as I've mentioned in the past, my morning walk takes me to an area where three highways meet, forming a bowl and a creek runs through this bowl. A few years ago, the city built a bridge over this creek. And while this makes it easier for walkers, joggers and bikers, they also destroyed a beaver dam in the process.

But guess what?

While I didn't actually catch sight of one of the orange- and buck-toothed little critters, I did see evidence that that are back! This picture was taken from the walking trail across the creek.

Too cool, huh?

Well, I think so. I'll keep my phone handy to take pictures of any wildlife I see.