Walking today (From a letter)

101030J  October 30, 2010

 

I am walking from Rolandale tower the hospital on my first walk of the day.  The sun is shining weakly through thin clods.  The clouds are ribbed and scaled like. Dead fish lying on the beach.  The sidewalk, lawns, and streets are littered with fallen leaves, some golden yellow, some red, some brown and crumpled.  The wall by the hospital parking garage is covered with ivy and grapevines that are red scarlet, salmon, orange and yellow.  All the trees are painted in brilliant hues.  There are pink chrysanthemums flowering in a yard I pass.

 

I am not feeling very well.  Not terrible, but unwell.  Achy, sore.

 

I have been working hard today, all day.  I carried down, washed and folded two loads of laundry and there's another in the dryer, partly folded.  I called about the meter replacement, but did not get fr with that.  I did my exercises, worked a little in the yards at both Rolandale and Moran, watered plants at both houses, etc.  And so on.

 

Boring, right?  Well, that's my day.

 

I am wearing my Dodge Poetry Festival shirt, though, sadly, I missed the festival this year.

 

What you can't see, among other things, is that I am writing while walking on my iPad.  Wait!  I am not walking on the iPad, I am writing on the iPad while walking.  But it is too heavy, and bulky to do this with any comfort, it hurts my wrists and back. 

 

I have walked over to Radio Shack and Ritz on Mack, not because I want to go there, but because that's where this particular walking loop goes.  There are lots of places I want and need to go, but those are not among them.

 

I turn back into the hoods.  A dog barks frantically at me.  I pass a young couple grinning foolishly at each other--ah young love.    I pass the lovely leaves of Liquidambar styraciflua--sweet gum, and a red bud tree with single heart-shaped leaves still clinging to it.  I pass a large handprints in cement and that same moony young couple who must have circled around another way.  I pass pumpkins and scarecrows and holiday decorations.  I do not like the plastic ones.

 

Soon, I will be back to the retreat and studio house and my walk will be over, though I will walk again, God willing and the creeks don't rise, in a little while.  The studio house is about to lurch into view.  There it is and my car in front of it.  I have to moth the African violets and go back to Moran.  I walked 34 minutes, a little slow because of writing.

 

I worked really hard today--on chores and necessities.  What I did NOT do was work hard on my writing or my art.  :-(