Morning Walk…

I’m currently riding in my van on the way back home from visiting my in-law’s.  Cheryl’s driving and has Alycia (her sister) to keep up conversation while I’m in the back with Hannah, Jack, Liberty and Joseph watching

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Oh…were you expecting something about my morning walk?  Hmmm…slept in until 6:00 am and relaxed around the house with my children most of the day until it was time to pack up the van.  Anyway, in lieu of a walk around the neighborhood, my “walking” back and forth between the house and the van with luggage will have to count. 

See you tomorrow!

Afternoon Walk…

As I said, I was undaunted by my late awakening for the day and have completed a 1.5 mile walk around the neighborhood.  Hannah joined me for the first .25 mile and then was replaced by Jack for the remaining 1.25 miles.  Hannah and I had a wonderful conversation about her faith in God and how without Him she is incapable of being good.  Jack spoke almost non-stop about almost everything that entered his mind.  His most inspiring thought expressed was how he desires to love God so that he can maintain self-control over his temper.

I prayed for this neighborhood as well as my own.

Morning Walk…

I partially woke up at 5:00 am today when my alarm went off to remind me of my desire to walk a mile in preparation for the 20+ mile hike on the AT this Spring.  Somewhere between turning off the alarm and a half-consicous thought about how I did not go to bed until 1:40 am, my head hit the pillow and I knocked out just as quickly as I woke up.

It’s nearly noon and I still have not put in my walk, but I have thorougly enjoyed the time with members of my wife’s family.  We were able to get almost everyone together this year which includes Cheryl’s parents, her 3 sisters and 1 brother, their 2 spouses and 1 very serious friend (boy), our 4 children and my 8 neices and nephews:  23 in all.

Undaunted, I still plan to get in my walk for the day…

Morning Walk…

Merry Christmas Eve.  It’s a cold one in Kannapolis, NC today.  I slept in until 5:30 am today as the past few days of <6 hours sleep per night begins to take a toll.  It would have been much later except that Jack woke me to help him find a bathroom.

Today, my body was sending every signal it could to my brain that this was just not worth it and I needed to return to the house as soon as possible.  Everything (muscles, bones, ligaments) was in pain including my lungs from the cold air.  I recalled the article on PUSH that I just published the other day and encouraged myself to continue.  Within the first .25 mile, everything had changed.  It was amazing.  Everything in my body felt as though it was actually “craving” the walk, pushing me to continue.

Took a slightly different route today.  

 

Morning Walk…

Today I learned 3 things:

1. My black rain jacket looks nice, but only serves to provide a conduit for rain onto my clothes beneath it.
2. It hurts to walk the 2nd day after not walking for 5 days.
3. At 5:00 am, in my black jacket, my dark navy blue jogging pants, my black/brown shoes and with the shroud of a light rain, I am almost completely invisible to the local newspaper delivery lady.

As I was walking up one of the streets this morning, the rain had begun to fall hard enough for me to put on my jacket hood to keep my head dry.  I noticed a car was coming so I quickly stepped into the front of a house driveway in order to keep from being accidentally run over.  Little did I know that the car was operated by the local newspaper delivery lady who was attempting to place a newspaper into the open slot of a mailbox that was 3 feet from where I was standing.  Once her car had stopped in front of me and we were 4 feet from each other, I realized that her car was blocking my exit and I would have to stand there until she finished.  This began to feel a bit awkward as I stood there looking at her.  Not wanting her to feel awkward as well, I decided to be cordial and announced, “Good morning!”  The way her arm retracted into her car with cat-like reflex and the slurred, but high pitched ”eeerrraaaahhh” that came out of her mouth led me to believe that she had not actually seen me up until my cordial greeting, nor did the site of a man dressed in almost all black less than 4 feet from her standing in the rain at 5:00 am bring her any comfort or joy.  Lest I was confused at this point, she clearly defined her lack of trust in me as she accelerated her vehicle away toward the next house that needed a newspaper.

Oh well, I continued my walk and prayed for this neighborhood as well as my own.  It was almost a 1.5 mile walk.

Morning Walk…

…so I missed a few days walking.  It started with a late night followed by a rough day and then some troublesome thoughts.  Nothing worth complaining about; in fact, this is already beginning to sound like an excuse and making my stomach turn at the thought of filling this page with such worthless type.

We arrived in Kannapolis, NC last night to visit with my in-laws for Christmas.  We were up until almost 1:00 am as the feeling of being together with family was just too good to go to bed.  I set my alarm for 7:00 am thinking that I would probably not be able to get up at 5:00 as usual (although not very usual lately).  Remarkably, my internal clock woke me up at 5:04 am! 

I found the neighborhood here in K-town to be very peaceful and just as quiet as my own.  The homes are a bit nicer quality than those in my neighborhood, but as long as everyone stays in bed while I walk then it matters not to me.  Not sure of the distance, I opened Google Earth and measured out my path…only .89 miles.  Will have to see if any of the children want to join me later for 1.11 miles to make it an even 2.0 miles for the day.

No walking today

I was up late last night as well as the night before…just not enough sleep, plus I lost my walking partner.  Hannah is not quite ready to get up at 5 am everyday and walk.  Considering her normal routine is to wake around 7:30-8:00, the jump to 5 ended up being too stressful on her emotional stability.

Well, I have just enough to whine about today but would rather not.  I despise whiners.

For those interested in hiking and back country camping, I have setup a wetpaint site for this very focus in the Virginia area.  It is still being developed, but there is a little bit of structure to it.

Pico do Arieiro

To The Major:  just to clarify your comment, is this where you recently visited?

Another 1.5 miles

Cheryl and I decided to give Jack an opportunity to go with Hannah and me on our 5 am walk today, but the sandman got the better of him.  It will be interesting to see how well he handles it later today when he eventually wakes up.

It was a little cooler (43°) with decent winds (10 mpth) to try Hannah’s resolve, but she did very well and showed me the resilience a 9 (almost 10) year old can possess.

…and we prayed some more for our neighbors.

Morning walk

Managed to get up by 4:45 am today for my walk.  Hannah was so excited that when I went in her room to wake her up, she was already awake looking at me with her wide-eyes and huge grin…she woke up ahead of me and considered it a great accomplishment.  I guess that makes sense.  There have probably only been a few times in her life where I was not up before her and those were probably due to me sleeping late.

	I went to strap on my pack this morning due to The Major’s encouragement from the other day, but found I was missing a side release buckle for the waist belt.   I forgot that I had given mine to Jack after he broke his a few months ago.
Hannah and I put in a quick mile today as yesterday’s 2.5 miles put me behind on quite a few tasks that I would otherwise have accomplished in my morning time. We did encounter something new today. One of our neighbor’s was having their car repossessed…possibly. That’s my guess based on the tow truck with police escort at 5 am.

All in all, a good walk and another good opportunity to pray for my neighbors.