Walking

My wife and I go walking almost every day now. She drags me out walking because she is trying to get me healthy. I turn 50 in less than two weeks and she is throwing me a party. I think she wants me around to throw her a party in 4 and a half years. I will gladly do it. Faithful readers know that I like to party. Partying is an excuse for cake and that may be why my wife wants me to walk. Too much cake.

I have two brothers and four sisters. At any given time when we were growing up someone was having a party. Someone was having cake. We all had different tastes so we all experienced different cakes. And so, I have come to love cake.

I am diabetic. I can't eat cake anymore. Another reason my wife drags me out walking.

It is great to live in Southern California where the weather is always nice and it doesn't rain on our walks. But I remember when we were newlyweds and we did go out walking. It rained on us that particular time. And we had a great time. Even now, 20 years later, we still enjoy walking. I enjoy the time with her. She is a great person to talk with. And she has learned to keep up with me. It used to be that she was always lagging behind me when we walked. I had to get where I was going. Walking has to be aerobic. No, she said, it is just a leisurely stroll.

You see, we have our differences. I walk because I get to spend time with her. We talk, we shop, we dine, we walk. We have a rule that we will not eat out at a restaurant unless it is within walking distance of our house. We walk two miles each night so that gives us about 7 restaurants in our area. No, there are nine. But two of them are down the hill and just beyond the 1 mile mark (two miles round trip). We are trying to build up our stamina.

On the weekends we try to walk to the mall. That is just over two miles (four round trip) and adds eight more restaurants and the food court (yippee). So we have a great variety in our area. It is a nice rule. It sounds good and it is a great story for my doctor. But we don't really adhere to it. We broke it tonight. Oops! I wasn't supposed to say that. Things happen.

Today I went walking by myself. I was inspired to write this little story because this evening, for my reading I chose one of my favorite authors. This gentlemen seems to write about stuff that hits close to my own life. We are about the same age and each have a wife and two kids. I think we are of the same intelligence because of an article he wrote a few months back.

I love his writing. He is very intuned to human nature and very insightful. Several years ago he vacationed with his family at the same town I did with mine, although not at the time as us. I enjoy reading his articles. Check out John Derbyshire's "The Road To Wisdom" on his website
http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/Straggler/page.html .

John, one of my dreams was to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which starts in my neighborhood and heads north all the way to the Canadian border. Just a bit more than 30 miles. Someday maybe. The other great walk I thought about was from Point Barrow, Alaska down the Rockie Mountains through Canada, through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and down through Mexico, Central America, across the Panama Canal and down into South America all the way to Tierra del Fuego. That was the plan of an 18 year old.

I am now pushing 50 (pushing it really hard, but it is stronger than me and pushing real hard back). That Tierra Del Fuego dream may fall but not the Pacific Crest Trail dream. I still cherish that one. Maybe I can get my wife to go on that one with me.

I HAVE been rambling. Please someone stop me. I almost missed my main reason for writing. Tonight, as I walked out on my own, there was a commotion between two crows in a tree near my walk. I stopped and looked up. At the very top there was perched a crow making all kinds of cries. He would poke his head into the heavy leaves and Caw and Caw. I was curious. He seemed very vocal. When he pulled his head out he had in his beak another Crow's wing. He stretched that wing out its full length. I could see the other crow's beak. I could not make out what he was carrying, perhaps a snail or some other tasty morsel but the bird in the bush was not letting go. Finally the vocal one gave up.

It was almost pleasant to see that the commotion was a food fight. Nature at its purest. The fight for survival. It was a very nice walk. Thank you John for the inspiration.

David.