So Not Ready

The morning view out my office window

OK, I was supposed to be on my way to New York now. OK, you know me, the backup plan is to be out the door 24 hours from now. OK, I'm on the drop dead plan which means I need to leave in 30 hours.

But... my head is full of sand, and I finally got a picture of the mist rising between the little hills in back of our house.

Our 40th Anniversary Party last week was a lot of fun. We enjoyed sharing with those people who were able to come!

The food for the hike is all packed. Now if only I could say the same for everything else. Wish me luck! But the day had a beautiful beginning, anyway!

Training Regiment Report

On Wednesday I hiked around my trails here for 45 minutes with 42 pounds. That is about the max weight we will each be carrying when we have full food rations and all water bottles full.

Yesterday I just did a quickie loop for Maggie with 37 pounds because then Om and I went on a bike ride- only about 8 miles, but it feels good.

Today I left home with Maggie on a leash and 45 pounds in my pack. I returned 1 hour 15 minutes later with 47.5 pounds. We walked the Scottville bypass, and I picked up 2.5 pounds of aluminum cans! So that's about 3 miles. I didn't break any speed records, but I did bend down to get all those cans. It was also pretty hot- about 80 degrees. That's good, because I always need to work myself into hiking when it's hot. It was long enough, but not so bad that I felt in pain or broken down when I got home. If I can keep up this sort of thing, I should be ready for August.

On a more artistic note, there have been some nice treats just around the house. I've found scarlet cup fungus, and yellow patches fungus for spots of color. Yesterday I found a live cicada that is somehow out of rhythm with the rest of his population. He (she?) was big and lovely with bright aqua patches where the wings met the body. I've never seen one with any color at all. I picked it up in hopes of corralling it while I got the camera, but it decided to fly away, buzzing in that odd cicada way. The wren is still hanging out trying to find a new lady love, and a cardinal is around too, nesting in the apple I think. A flicker is working hard to enlarge to hollow space that the bluebirds nested in this spring, so it won't be the right size for the bluebirds next spring. The deer and turkeys wander through the yard, and the moles and ground squirrels wander under the yard.

Got a call today from a reporter at the Grand Rapids Press. They want to do an article on my NCT hikes. The interview will be July 24th. Don't know when the article will run.

I posted this on xanga, Jun 14, 2005. Want to put it here too, because if you see the initials QD on a post, this is what it means.

I've decided to let the blog world in on a secret. A number of years ago things were very dark for us and I needed some little tangible thing beyond "the everlasting arms" of God to keep my head above the waters of despair. I learned that it didn't take much, but just a little something, and I needed to pay attention and make note of the fact that even one good thing had happened. I came up with a list of 6 Elements of a Quality Day, QD for short.

If any one of those things happened, I could make it through one more day. Even in those dark times there was seldom a day that one of those things did not happen I wrote my QD entries at the beginning of each journal day. I've kept the system, although it's a long time since it's been a struggle to make it from day to day, just because it always reminds me that there is something to be cheerful about. (I don't tend to be an eternal optimist... one of my mother's nicknames for me was "the little thundercloud."). I haven't faithfully noted every day's entry, but sometimes I have. It's fun to go back and see what I put down.

So here's my list, and entries will just be coded QD.
Elements of a Quality Day
     1. Experience something new
     2. Do something outside
     3. Learn something new
     4. Accomplish something
     5. Do a service for the Lord
     6. If I just feel good anyway for no particular reason (in other words, it's not a bad day if none of the above happen, but I'm not feeling down about it. To prevent the logical progression, "if none of 1-5 happen then I must be depressed.")

QD- Dec 11, 2007

Wet snow fell all afternoon, making the world into a winter wonderland. Skiing was marginal, but ok. The beauty just uplifts my spirit!