Water is low

 

When I don't have my daughter, I need to exercise. So I walk down to Willow Lake. It's less than 6k steps and I've read you need to do 8k a day, but my doctor told me to walk for 20 minutes a day, so it's more than a 20 minute walk.

I have all kinds of romantic notions about a connection to a pond from Thoreau. My eyes aren't good enough to spot if the bald eagle is still there. I couldn't identify the birds that fluttered away from me. Willow Lake is a man made lake they made for the World's Fair in 1964. Even so it's green and a good place to walk to. Sometimes I meditate. Sometimes I reflect. Mostly I just walk around.

It's been raining today but the place isn't very swampy. I'm not sure what the swampy season is, but the path is dry and there was lot of planks so you can walk above the soggy ground, but they're not needed right now. 

I imagine when the water raises a foot or two (at least), it might become real swampy. I thought about the droughts all around the world. I wish I could go back to a pre-climate change world where extreme weather wasn't a sign of doom, just a variation, an oddity, not ominous in it's meanings. I won't be alive for much longer, 20-30 more years would be good enough for me. I have children, and I hope they have children. The Cylons pointed out to the humans that they never really asked if they should exist in the excellent show Battlestar Galactica, and sometimes I'm so disappointed by some of the things people say and do. But I do sort of hope my species can continue to live on earth, and don't destroy themselves.

Willow Lake

 

There's a dark spot in that willow, and that's an eagle. We saw a tortoise, eagle, and mallards. Lots of great flowers, reeds, bark and green.

Eagle

There's an eagle, actually a family, a mother and father and juvenile, on Willow Lake. I was talking to this nice couple, they showed it to me. What do they eat? The fish in the lake. She said someone put an invasive species in the lake, but she wasn't sure which one. She says the eagles usually go upstate this time of year. There were also warblers and red wing black birds. Nice couple.

I sat in my meditation spot, and a drake type fowl popped out of the water. When I walked close to the water, there was a big splash. Not sure if it's a muskrat or what. I've seen tortoises.

Walking out I saw a blue shell. Life is fragile, shells represent that fragility. 

Moss

I'm listening to Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Backpack

 The frame of my trip is the movie The Prom. I started watching it before I was picked up and as I wolfed down the bowl of noodles, I watched some more. What a great move. Not great music, I'm not going to memorize the songs like in Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hamilton or Encanto. I kept breaking into song on the trip, I guess I had my musical hat on to express myself and I'm in the woods, so there's only my friend to laugh at me.

More photos:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcslG_TuDKL3R_LI-AFxrWsj2ivDfSV4P55OfM0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcskyKjOSCKbHm3WRF1VDjzkUdFdPW5JErcWGQ0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccsgb8VO_ZfnmafrGcE0-osAW5IxzoFs-8urtc0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Going backpacking, just a day in, overnight, and out.

But that got me thinking what blogs are out there? Usually a rum game.

You can find articles with lists of blogs. They're basically all selling something, which I guess is the whole motive of the internet, but I'm not selling something, just expressing ideas. I didn't really connect with any of these blogs before I gave up. Even the New York Times. You read a paragraph and there's an ad. You have to fight your way to get any meaning out text today, the way the press has been monetized. Nobody watches commercials on TV any more. My daughter has grown up without being force fed commercials. That's a good thing.

I opened up the camping gear closet. Usually I go car camping with my ex, but for 30 years I've gone backpacking, canoeing and hiking with my good friend, and we're going! I'm so psyched to spend time with my friend. 

My friend is a gearhead, and I always borrow something off him. My ex was an organizer, and really like to plan for trips, created reams of list paper. I'm the spontaneous guy you take with you for fun. That's my role, but I can plan too. The spirit of backpacking is to be self reliant. I try to remember all the things I would need. I move my car to the other side.

My sons declined. They're teens, want to play video games. 

My ex declined. "Not with a 6 year old." And to car camping, "I don't have any money."

My new friend from Vermont who grew up on the other side a mountain used to camp she says. 

I'm honestly really out of shape, that's a factor. I've got a knee brace. So what. We'll go slow. It's not a huge hike in, so you know. Take twice as long if you need to. 

I'm looking forward to just not having the stimulation of the computer and phone. I'm looking forward to nice views, and good conversation. Music in the car. It's going to be awesome!

What will I miss from civilization? Coffee. Take a caffeine pill. I might have watched the baseball game this afternoon. Part of the allure of baseball is a huge open field. 

I'm going to feel so free tomorrow morning not to surf the web to begin my day. I know this is a good thing because I'm chomping at the bit for my friend to get here.

Some chop

 When I used to row, I loved flat water. Willow pond isn't very big, it's man made in 1964, but it was gusty today on my walk down to the pond.

I didn't sit and meditate, today my goal was just to get the legs moving. I was thinking about what a loss it was for Margaret Fuller not to be part of the suffrage movement because of the tragic shipwreck hundreds of feet from the shore of Fire Island. Has anyone written a what if novel if she would have joined the suffrage movement?