late night spring walk

i plugged away at a similar blog entry some ago when i walked home from work at night. i think the proper way to describe the walk is muted -- that goes for all senses. everything is so closed and shut in. it seems like you're in a bubble, a very cold bubble.

the after work walk a few days ago was completely different. all senses were on full alert.

sound is the perfect one to start with. there was the rumble of car motors as they went up and down the street -- even at midnight. way more traffic than on a cold winter's night. inside the moving cars came the blasting sounds of music (with bass up high). windows are rolled down and people enjoy a late night drive with the jams. also, as my shoes crunched leaves, dirt and other debris, the sounds of window units whirring away, keeping oeople comfortable during these mild, humid nights, from between homes. also, there was the sound of water dripping from the darkness, as if from a small garden fountain.

smell, though, is more dominant, i think. you get the pungent smells of car exhaust (something more evident in hotter months), but also the lovely scents of flowers, shrubs and trees blooming. you can't resist inhaling deeply and cathing whiffs of late spring. and as i passed different houses, the smells varied, depending what was growning in the yard.

and lights. they are everywhere. it might be midnight but a lot of people are stil up. many upstairs and some downstairs' lights are on throughout neighborhoods. in winter, there are only a few lonely lights in a few houses.

pherhaps it's true with spring comes regeneration. but it's not only for flowers, trees and plants, it's for everything. all winter (and part of spring), it's like we move around and do things but not really. we're living in isolated bubbles where our senses are limited.

i don't know, all i can say is i do enjoy this time of year because the days are so long and everything is so alive.

the lonliness of the long distance runner

well, i wouldn't call myself one; i think i would have a heart attack if i tried to run more than a mile.

but i started my daily regime of jogging again. i had stopped for more than a month due to a badly sprained/strained ankle and thenswollen bursa sacs (oh that sounds reeeeeal cool. say it outloud.). they're located at the tip of the tibia where it connects to my knee. my legs burned like a mother. after getting the swelling under control, i still had to wait until my akle healed completely.

and while it felt good, i wanted to make sure that my ankle was ok to sustain the pressure of strain on it. chalk it up to old age. joints aren't like they used to be.

when i went to the doctor to check out my ankle an swelled legs, he said my knees creaked a lot, like he sees in people who hike through unruly terrain in the woods. well, i did live in a ranch for 30 years, so i guess that would also do it. i felt like an old man; it was embarrassing. the doc told me that when we jog we put one and a half times our weight on the knes and akles. when we run, it's three times our weight. crap!

so i continued to walk to work and work my legs that way. but i held off on jogging until last week.

i don't run very far yet. i still haven't jogged as far as i did right before my unfortunate leg situation. but i'll get there. in addition, it's so hot now that i sweat like a freaking pig. but it's not such a bad thing. it shows me that i've doing something that exerts energy.

when i jog, things are different. the day becomes longer -- at least the part of the day that i'm at home. also, i think a bit clearer and i feel full of energy.

by the way, if anyone's interested, the title of the blog entry is the title of an iron maiden song from "somewhere in time." (1986)