Day 19: Good Walk, Bad News
Up until about an hour ago, I was in a good mood. Then I got a message from my brother. When I first told my family about the wedding, this brother told me that he, his wife, and at least one of his daughters would be there. Seems that isn't going to happen.
His oldest daughter is a senior in high school. She's been on the volleyball team since she was a freshman. That makes her a senior athlete. The last home football game of the year is the night before the wedding. Apparently there's a tradition at her high school that at the last home football game, all of the senior athletes go out onto the field. They link arms at the goal line and walk across the field to the other goal line. Understandably, my brother doesn't want to rob his daughter of that experience, so the plan was to get up early the next morning, catch a plane to the nearest airport, rent a car, drive to the wedding and fly back the next day. Then they started looking at prices, and realized that they couldn't afford for the entire family to do that. So my brother will be coming to the wedding by himself.
Now I understand all of that, really I do. But his family was going to be the bulk of my family in attendance. And understanding why it has to be this way doesn't change the fact that it hurts.
And now that I'm done venting, on to the walk.
Saw a couple of robins at the park. They were busily scarfing up whatever it is that robins love in newly mown grass. No socialization, no rabbits - it was your basic walk. The sun was going down, so the sky was a rich mellow blue with streamers of gold. The few clouds were just starting to be touched by pink. Manny was once again trying to sniff everything - at one point, he put his nose to the asphalt and trailed a scent for a little while. At least he was walking when he was doing that! The number of times I had to pull him back to walking....
All in all, it was a pleasant, if uneventful, walk. I'm still puffing and slowing down by the time I get home doing the .73 walk, so it will be a while before I increase the distance.
His oldest daughter is a senior in high school. She's been on the volleyball team since she was a freshman. That makes her a senior athlete. The last home football game of the year is the night before the wedding. Apparently there's a tradition at her high school that at the last home football game, all of the senior athletes go out onto the field. They link arms at the goal line and walk across the field to the other goal line. Understandably, my brother doesn't want to rob his daughter of that experience, so the plan was to get up early the next morning, catch a plane to the nearest airport, rent a car, drive to the wedding and fly back the next day. Then they started looking at prices, and realized that they couldn't afford for the entire family to do that. So my brother will be coming to the wedding by himself.
Now I understand all of that, really I do. But his family was going to be the bulk of my family in attendance. And understanding why it has to be this way doesn't change the fact that it hurts.
And now that I'm done venting, on to the walk.
Saw a couple of robins at the park. They were busily scarfing up whatever it is that robins love in newly mown grass. No socialization, no rabbits - it was your basic walk. The sun was going down, so the sky was a rich mellow blue with streamers of gold. The few clouds were just starting to be touched by pink. Manny was once again trying to sniff everything - at one point, he put his nose to the asphalt and trailed a scent for a little while. At least he was walking when he was doing that! The number of times I had to pull him back to walking....
All in all, it was a pleasant, if uneventful, walk. I'm still puffing and slowing down by the time I get home doing the .73 walk, so it will be a while before I increase the distance.