And We Are Walking

In a long ago and far away time I worked out at Curves. OK fine, I quit my membership there this March, you people are so picky. But, I did spend two years going to my local Curves 3-5 days a week. And in that time I made some great friends. There was a group of us who showed up every morning...the "early morning" group. Trust me when I say that if you have a group of people who are willing to get up and sweat at 7:30a then you have a group of strong minded individuals. Yup, strong.

So, there was a change in ownership at the Curves....and there were other changes that made some of us a tad unhappy.....and so we all quit. We took our sneakers and went home. Pffffffft!

But then we all said, "Well, we still have to exercise or else we will all look like hippos. So how about we exercise together!"

And so we do. 3 days a week (and occasionally more) we power walk two miles around a local lake. If it is raining we go to the local outlet mall and walk under cover but most of the time we walk outside. We walk, we talk, we solve the worlds problems.

Finally, I remembered to bring my camera to take some pictures. Are you ready? Here we go....

Sunny Lake is really lovely. Last year not so much because the powers that be drained the lake to do some work so all summer it was a stinking mudhole. But now it is lovely, especially this time of year when the leaves are turning.


We occasionally see some wildlife, mostly geese and the occasional duck. The geese are rather a problem around here. You can't kill them, you can't maim them (not that we would), you can't get rid of them. In fact, the next town over tried to prosecute a man for killing a goose that was attacking some woman in a parking lot. The town saw the error of their ways but it just illustrated the ridiculousness of protecting these creatures. Sunny Lake has a lot of these and where there are geese there is....

....... goose poop. I said poop, I am sorry. Excrement would have been a better word I suppose. Massive amounts of goose excrement. Littering the paths that we need to walk on.

Tip toe, through the goose poop. Check your shoes Don't you track that in here. Tip toe, through the goose poop with me.
(Sung to the tune of "Tip Toe Through the Tulips)


The other bird that we love to see is the Great Blue Heron. There are actually two of them who hang around the lake. They are the coolest things I can tell you.
They aren't the loveliest things when in flight, sort of puts you in mind of something from Jurassic Park. By the way, just as an aside, the book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is WAAAAAAY scarier than the movie ever was. I just thought you would want to know that.

He let me get this close and no closer. Thank goodness for the telephoto lens.
"What are you looking at lady? You lookin' at ME!"


We spent Friday walking a tad slower because Mary Lynn brought all her pictures from their trip to Africa. An ipod touch is an awesome thing for storing pictures that you want to show to other people. But it is hard to walk, talk, look at pictures and take pictures almost simultaneously. Thank goodness I am good at multi-tasking.

This is Toby. He is walking with his owner almost every morning when we are finishing up. Toby does not like to walk, not at all. He walks then sits and won't go any further even though his owner urges him on in her lovely Scottish brogue. That is until Toby spots the ladies. Toby is a real ladies man let me tell you. He picks up the pace and head over to see us and have us pet him and adore him And he has us all wrapped around his little finger. Or his paw as the case may be.

OK, now I am done with this rather boring post. But at least the pictures were pretty. Well all except the one of the goose excrement. I do tend to take pictures of unusual animal excrement. I can show you the pictures of the bear poop if you want.

No?

Well maybe later.