These Tennis Shoes are Made For Walkin’

I walk.

I am a walker.

I do not run. Not for any reason other than the promise of frozen Oreos. But I walk, three mornings a week, rain or shine, warmth or cold, snow or no snow, threat of bear or not.

And when I say that we walk in the cold I do mean the cold. I believe that we didn’t ever call off walking last winter even though it was occasionally 0F or below. We are walking machines. We might have called off walking when we were in the midst of a huge bunch of snow but I think that is about it.

These are my walkin’ buddies. We are all former Curvesers who left for reasons that will have to remain out in the blogging atmosphere. All I can say is if 10 people quit all at the same time the person who is running the Curves might want to take a second look. That’s all I’m saying.

But I digress.

Sandy, Carol, Lea and I, along with LookLeap on occasion, show up at the local park at 7a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I have been bringing my camera this summer and taking some pictures so you can see what I see and love. I will say that if it is raining we take the walking over to the local outlet mall. But pictures of that would be really boring. And when it gets to be too slippery on the park paths (early December) we then walk only at the outlets. It is boring and that is all I am going to say.

Beautiful. There have been a bunch of foggy mornings this year. I love those days the most. I love all the mornings but the foggy ones are the best. We walk and fix all the problems of the world.

Actually that isn’t quite true. We stay away from politics. We don’t all see eye to eye and we like each other way too much to wade into that steamy pile. Friends don’t let friends lose friends over politics.

We see the same people when we walk. There is the fellow who runs and I do mean runs. He makes me tired just watching him. There is the group of older gentlemen with canes and sunny smiles. There is the couple with the golden retriever named Buckeye.

And then there is Toby.

Oh Toby how we love you. Your owner has a lovely Scottish accent. Toby is friendly but not all that excited about actually walking anywhere. He walks. He sits. He walks. He sits. He greets “his ladies” (that’s us). Toby was VERY glad to see us hence the modesty patch in the picture. I didn’t want to shock you.

We like everyone we see on our walks….

Well almost everyone. There is one person that isn’t my favorite and my walking buddies stand in solidarity with me.

This is Mr. Stick Up The Butt Crabby Pants and his dog. The picture is fuzzy and that is how I like to keep it. We greet everyone on the path…..except this fellow. He was unaccountably rude one day when I had Max with us. We choose to ignore him. He needs a happy pill.

You never know what you might encounter when you are walking. We saw a Bald Eagle once. Of course I didn’t have my camera with me that time. Sigh. We see LOTS of ducks and LOTS and LOTS of Canada Geese.

And if you have Canada Geese you also have….

Canada Geese byproducts.

Tiptoe through the goose poop….. 

Sorry, I got sidetracked there. In the Spring we are very careful when walking because the geese are nesting and a nesting goose is a crabby goose. It is helpful to have Max with us on those occasions. And we walk and clap and wave our hands and look like idiots.

There might also have been a time or three this summer when we had to wade through the puddles. We have had a fair amount of rain this year. We take one for the team and walk right through. We are tough.

And we are totally and completely consumed with looking for the Great Blue Heron who hangs around the lake. In fact there are two of them. They are so totally beautiful. 

So there you go. Now you see what I see three mornings a week. And if you are in my neck of the woods you can come and walk with us. We would love it.

It will be good for you.