Grazing in the Grass

So I got this new piece of exercise equipment today. At least, that's the way Rose sees it. She believes grass-cutting is a recreational activity.

The first cut is always the most painful...drag the mower out of the shed and pray that it will start, even though I never do the pre-winter maintenance, like draining the gas tank. Prayers are not answered, so after several hours of cleaning fuel lines and carburetor, trips to two garden stores for new spark plug, assorted imaginative vocabulary, I finally go to Home Depot and buy a new mower.

Selection is aided by a newly-trained saleswoman ("I reallllly enjoyed my lawn mower class!"), who helps me read the signs on the different models. It comes down to a choice between Toro and Cub. Toro engine looks exactly like the one at home that doesn't run, so I settle on the Cub.

Perky salesperson actually helps me load the mower onto a cart (but not into the Jeep), as well as offering various accessories, such as hearing protectors. I'm thinking that the hearing protectors would have been needed for my family yesterday while I was trying to get the old mower to start. No thanx, I say, the only thing I need now is somebody to walk this thing around my yard for the next couple hours. She smiles, pats my arm and says she could use somebody like that too. I am outta there!

These Boots Are Made for Walking

We bought new hiking boots Sunday, and immediately started breaking them in with a 5-mile walk. (I had a pair I bought a couple years ago and wore them for a week or so until I gave up--they were killing my feet.) Now that we're having better weather and more daylite, I am also making my target of 20 miles per week.

One day last week I took another stroll along the Catonsville Short Line. If you're familiar with the area, you know the trail passes through the grounds of the Spring Grove Mental Hospital..or whatever the politically correct name is for such institutions. So, here I am, walking along, hoping I look like I DON'T belong there. Suddenly I'm imagining a couple of guys in white coats escorting me into one of the buildings. Walking around inside the mall doesn't seem so bad after all!

Saturday in the Park

Hershey Park, that is.
What a great day, the weather was unbelievable.
Tom and my niece Elizabeth and I rode all the wooden 'coasters; Elizabeth didn't "qualify" for the Great Bear, but Tom and I took two "spins" on that as well.
I give myself credit for about 3 miles walking...offset unfortunately by a ton of junk food, so the scale will not be my friend Monday.

Alice's Restaurant

You can get anything you want...at Alice's Restaurant....

Arlo Guthrie's 1960's antiwar narrative that revolved around a Thanksgiving Day littering incident came to mind today when I was walking along the old Catonsville Short Line right-of-way.

Here, off the side of a side road, at the bottom of a fifteen foot cliff, was a big pile of garbage. Household garbage, dirty diapers, empty food containers...not the usual remains of a six-pack or a Mickey-D carryout.

Since I had my camera, I took some pictures, ending up with 27 eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against the perpetrators.

Now this isn't about Alice, or the restaurant, it's just a rant. Who would dump garbage along a neighborhood walking trail anyway? In this case, I'm afraid that justice will be more blind than usual, and nobody will have to pay for this crime except people like me who had their walk spoiled.

Day Tripper

We went for an extended walk in Patapsco State Park today, covering a little over six miles. Didn't really qualify as a hike since the trails were very muddy so we stayed on the asphalt and gravel paths. Even though it was chilly and damp we got a good workout and did some exploring along the river. Lots of memories for me from the days when my best friend Harry and I used to hike in the area.

I carried a backpack with some bottles of water, a radio to listen to the O's game, some snacks, couple of ponchos, and one of those survival knife gizmos with pliers and scissors and what not --maybe 8 or 9 pounds total. Speaking of that, some friends offered to let us borrow their backpacks for the Canyon trip, so there's another equipment item checked off.