Tuesday, Wednesday, February 3,4, 2009

Tuesday

I went for my walk this morning, and ran into Rosemary again, and we walked together.  She walks much faster than I do, so I had to really hustle to keep up.  After our walk, we stopped at her house just down the street from me, and I met her husband, Jeff, and their dog, Haley. 

Behind where they live is a defunct housing development.  They only built two houses before they went bankrupt.  They had cleared the whole area, though.  Rosemary said that before they cleared it, that area was on the elk migration path, and sometimes she and Jeff would see thirty or forty elk just hanging out there.  Now, she never sees any.

When I take my walk, I always see evidence of what this area used to be . . . all ranching.  I see garages in the shape of barns, old farming equipment gone rusty, and white fenced pastures where horses used to frolic and graze . . . now empty and lonely.  They call this progress.  I call this sad.

Wednesday

Today was the seniors outdoors walk.  I decided to try the whole one today.  I was surprised at how many people attended.  When I start halfway into the walk, I can't tell because everyone is so spread out, and I usually start walking with the ones in front.  So, today, at the starting time, Joan, who is leader of this walk, asks everyone to form an oval, and we went around saying our names.  Then, the walk.

I started off walking with Rosemary and Kathleen, who is another woman who just recently moved here.  When I stopped to get a drink of water, they got far ahead of me, so I walked the rest of the way there with Warren - - the guy who drove me to the Christmas party - - and another woman.  When we got to the end, they hung out there, but I was already tired, and thought I should try to hurry back.  I don't why I thought that if I hurried it would be easier to make it than if I walked easy, but, that's what I thought.  I hurried back alone, trying to catch up to people, but they were too far ahead of me.  I never thought I'd make it.  When I saw the car, it was sweet relief.  I was totally exhausted.  But, I still managed enough energy to go shopping!