Leading up to my October 11 70th birthday, I have been writing of my intention to begin undergoing long walks as of October 12th. And those walks would be undertaken during the dark a.m. hours.
I wanted to be certain of taking advantage of advance voting Saturday morning (October 12th), so I decided to postpone any long walks until the following day ─ i.e., today.
My younger brother evidently spent last night at the home of his girlfriend Bev, so he did not come home last evening and tempt me into sitting up late ─ I am the operator of our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, the means by which we watch episodes of the numerous T.V. series we follow.
And thus it was that I made it to bed right around 10:00 p.m.
My only companionship was an admitted bout of loneliness.
My only companionship was an admitted bout of loneliness.
It is normal for me to sleep in most broken fashion, so nothing was different on this occasion. And when I found myself awake well before 3:00 a.m. and still awake better than a half hour later, I decided to get up and put some work into the post I have in progress at one of my six hosted websites ─ and while drinking a big mug of hot instant coffee, of course.
I had considered trying to get away on my walk by 5:00 a.m. However, I also wanted to visit the pharmacy approximately four blocks from here, and it opens at 8:00 a.m. ─ I could pass right by it on my way home without adding any distance to my route.
Yet I estimated that it would be most unlikely that my walk would take me three hours. After all, my estimate was that the total distance was probably well short of nine miles.
Consequently, the 5:00 a.m. departure lost importance.
As it turned out, once I had locked the front door and began my hike, it was 5:33 a.m.
My ultimate destination was Newton's 72nd Avenue and King George Boulevard, which is approximately 3½ miles from my home. At that intersection as you look at the following map, you ought to be able to discern the railway tracks a very short distance from there ─ the railway tracks are just to the left along 72nd Avenue:
I would take to those railway tracks, following them 'upwards' as you view the map.
But during the final mile to that intersection, I was to have two separate encounters with "ladies of the night" who were out plying their trade. The first of them seemed impossibly young, and she volunteered a "Good morning!" as we intersected ─ just as did the somewhat more mature hooker farther on.
I responded to both ladies with considerable enthusiasm, for I had no desire to add any sense of unfriendliness to their experiences of the morning. Besides, if I make these walks a regular practice, I might eventually become somewhat familiar to them both, and I would like them to regard me with a sense of acceptance and even safety.
Interestingly, after I had turned onto 72nd Avenue for my approach to the railway tracks, I checked the time and saw it to be 6:36 a.m. The 3½ miles had taken me barely more than an hour, and I was pleased that it was still dark.
The stretch of railway tracks that I then travelled would basically make a diagonal cut through a two-square-mile block, taking me almost to the intersection of Nordel Way and Scott Road. If you examine this Google map, you should be able to make out the railway tracks well to the right of that intersection:
From where I had first set foot upon those railway tracks, the distance I had hiked along them would have exceeded 2¾ miles. The diagonal path that the railway tracks took through the two-mile square block that I spoke of was not quite geometrically exact; but if it had been, the equation for a precise diagonal cut through such a block would be 2.8284 miles.
My pace along those railway tracks had been very slow due to the rugged terrain the railway ties and irregular gravel between them presented. When I checked the time after leaving those tracks and turning right onto Nordel Way, I found it to be 7:40 a.m.
Home was approximately 2¼ miles away. In all, I would have hiked something beyond eight miles in total when my journey was done.
During my hike along the railway tracks, I encountered at least a half dozen different rabbits; and twice I disturbed the croaking of solitary frogs. I think that once I even heard an owl softly hooting from an industrial building ─ it was either that, or a pigeon cooing or whatever it is that they do. The owl seemed more likely, though.
When I reached the pharmacy ─ and then spent some considerable while standing about in the nutritional supplements section ─ upon making my purchases and departing the store on the final four or so blocks to get home, I was shocked by how badly my feet had deteriorated over the course of that break from the steady walking I had earlier engaged.
I was somewhat footsore, but it was the painful state of the toes of both feet that was especially arresting. The two longest toes of each foot had become most painful ─ and the central toe of each foot in particular. The constant pressure of pushing against the end of my boot with each step was suddenly manifesting.
I almost hobbled home, and there was no longer any speed.
Upon getting home, I soon stiffened up very badly. And in short order, I made a return to bed, for I was useless for anything else.
The nap was very nice, but I was back out of bed before it was quite 10:00 a.m. ─ although I did lie in bed for quite some time before actually getting myself up. I felt as if I could have easily fallen back into another nap.
My younger brother was downstairs with an NFL game on T.V.
I had become so variously sore and stiff from my venture that I had some question on whether I would be able to descend the stairs without it being obvious that something was most amiss with me, but I was not noticed.
I fixed up a rich hot caffeinated beverage, and then returned to work some more on that website post. Eventually, I joined my brother to watch the final few minutes of the Seattle Seahawks / Cleveland Browns game that he had been following with deep interest.
Seattle was to triumph: 32 - 28.
I think by this time it was around 1:30 p.m., so he retired to his bedroom to rest up for his afternoon away to end up drinking somewhere.
Despite how almost impossibly stiff and sore I was everywhere, I resolved to have some exercise with my 43½-pound dumbbell. I will only say that my performance was very poor, and I had to take lengthy breaks between the few sets of movements that I forced upon myself.
That freed me up to finally have a meal ─ my brother came back downstairs to take his leave as I was preparing it.
And then after I had eaten, I found it necessary to once more return to bed for another nap.
To be absolutely honest, I do not see how I can possibly undergo this same walk as soon as tomorrow a.m. ─ my poor suffering toes alone could not possibly handle the punishment. And so as a result, I have no idea what is to be in store.
Yesterday, Google Photos automatically created a collage of some photos that were taken exactly five years earlier (i.e., 2014) when my wife had me along to attend a birthday party her friend was hostessing for her husband who just happens to share my October 11 birthday ─ albeit he is considerably younger than am I.
I got to share the celebration with him ─ it was quite a wild affair.
A similar birthday party had taken place the year before that, and now Google Photos has created a collage from some of those 2013 photos:
Another friend of my wife's has a birthday just a day or two different from mine, so she was also featured in the celebrations held on both of those years.
Here are the original photos included in that collage, beginning with the left column ─ that is my wife and I in the very first photo, and I am with the other birthday boy in the second photo:
And now the second column:
Remembering those two parties ─ and seeing my wife and I together in that photo ─ has just driven home with painful effect the sense of how very much I have lost in the years since my retirement in early April 2011.
Hell, I feel like I've been alone and lonely practically throughout all of my life.
Hell, I feel like I've been alone and lonely practically throughout all of my life.
I don't care to blog any further today.
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