Saturday's walk...

Instead of drinkin' beer and wastin' away the days on the Independence Holiday (surely our founding father's intentions----that and blowin' the hell out of massive quantities of gunpowder in the night sky) I decided to walk around the cottage lake 4 time. A nice 20 minute walk at home before we left for the cottage (and a large cup of McDonald's coffee) got me perked up for some more walkin. One lap around the lake is a about 2.5 miles. Yesterday, I decided to complete 4 laps with my dog. After each lap I would unleash Mara and watch her plunge into the clear water *clearness courtesy of weekly chemical treatments accepted by the property owners around the lake)

Each time around the lake yielded a different perspective. For instance, I was able to form a better count of the crushed turtles, birds and cat alonside the road on my multiple laps. I also observed nature's delicate balance with its surrounding environment with the presence of 2 swans and a family of geese off in a section of the man made lake that was less travelled. The first two laps were completed while the lake had quiet hours. Once they were over a swarm of boats, tubes and jetski's took over. The constant hum of man's machines remains constant until around dinner time of about 5pm. Then people go out for a last hurrah before the 7:30pm mandated quiet hours. Everyone follows this time really well. No need to enforce it really.

Makes me wonder why people shoot off their fireworks until about 2 in the morning...

We brought along my wife's 96 year old Great Aunt Martha. She's in the process of moving out of her apartment into an assisted living community. The loss of indepence further contributes to her depression. However, when she is not having a down moment, she is very alert for a person her age. The entire ride up and down she spoke about growing up on a farm, working for a hotel in Washington D.C., hiking the Appalachian Mts. going to the west coast, Panama, Flordia and many other places...