I Kept My Promise To Porter

DS called and shamed me into picking up his dog and taking her for a walk.  She and I tried out her new harness (a much nicer walk, no pulling my arm out of the socket or my back out of whack) and walked down to the Hwy. 172 overpass and back (about 2 miles).  I was hoping to see bald eagles like I did last Spring but all I saw was a flock of about a hundred pelicans across the river and 3 deer grazing in an open area behind a business.  Deer, right there in the city.  Pretty cool, eh?  I liked it and Porter was interested.  One of the deer was interested in us too but we moved slowly and quietly so they settled back to grazing.  Made my day. (Last year we saw a fox a couple times, very cool.)  Next Tuesday we're walking the Baird Creek trail to see what we can see.  I really love that there are trails and wildlife right in town just a block from a state highway or a busy neighborhood or factories.  And it's all free to use.  I think we live in a cool place.

Durwood and I got up at the crack of dawn today to go to breakfast with the dive guys.  We haven't done that in donkey's years but it's the first dive weekend of the season and Durwood hasn't seen them in a while.  He had a list of errands that we ran afterwards:  Festival Foods for bananas and brats, Cooks Corner where they're having a moving sale (he's not allowed to go there alone) and he got a cookbook (I bought some vacuum sealing zipper bags to try with the food sucker thingy), Office Max for a couple of those plastic desk chair carpet pad things (he had a 20% off coupon), and Copps for grapes and an Rx.  By the time we got home it was nearly lunchtime so he zoomed back out to get a "buy one, get one" cheeseburger at Gilly's (he had a coupon); they were pretty good for half-price burgers.  After that I got busy wrenching my back moving a solid walnut bookcase (I should have taken the books out) to get the old carpet pad up before Durwood came and made suggestions and helped me get the job done, then I raked the front yard, dragged the birdie trees out of the backyard because soon the birdies will have leaves to shelter in, brought in the wind chimes for Durwood to fix the gongers on, went to Home Depot for a new garage light bulb and then put it in, filled all the birdfeeders, took out the birdbath heater for the season, washed that and the birdbath (pee-yew) and the patio table.  By then it was time to light the grill so I did that.  Now I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my lower back so I'm not totally crippled tomorrow.  (you do understand that my middle name should be  "blockhead" right?  since I'm not smart enough to stop when I hurt myself... but who could resist working outside on the first nice day of the year?  not me.)


April 27--Edgar Degas, Dancer with Fan.

toes turned out
heels together
First Position

toes remain out
feet shoulder width
Second Position

keep those toes turned out
heels tessellate, right in front
Third Position

right foot forward, toes out
left foot behind, toes out
Fourth Position

bring feet together
keeping toes out
Fifth Position

Fifty years since my last lesson
my body still remembers
~~~~~

It's time to go check on the charcoal and sit outside in the waning sunlight.  I must go, I think it's a law.
--Barbara