Labor Day morning walk.

"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."
~William S. Burroughs

Today is Labor Day, a much needed holiday from labor, for me. I started the morning with a vigorous, yet leisurely and relaxing (is that possible?) walk around the neighborhood. I love walking the neighborhood. Why? Because I love: being alone with my thoughts, getting the blood running through my body, inviting endorphins into my day, breathing in the crisp cool morning air, watching the clouds paint me a breathtaking canvas of evening sunset colors, people-watching, admiring and smelling the roses in my neighbors' front yards. It's often the thing that gets my day started just right or releases the tension at the end of my day. So many interesting sights. New things each time. And also, a lot of the same.

All the neighborhood dogs jumped up this morning from their lazy spots in the yard, anxiously awaiting my impending arrival, although they typically can't wait until I'm at their property line to start barking at me. Why can't dogs just know that this is a relaxing morning walk? No barking allowed.

One neighbor's house has fake(!) Christmas trees planted in their front yard along their icky chain link fence. PLANTED. FAKE. And my apologies, Neighbor, but I think all chain link is icky. But seriously, fake trees? And I'm not talking large Christmas trees that one would have in their house during the regular season. I'm talking about those funky tall and skinny trees that you might see in a retail store's window display. They're not really all that tall, maybe only three or four feet, but their overall shape is tall and skinny. And the funniest part is that all the dark green skinny branches (if you can call them that--each branch consists of one wire coming out of the main tree trunk), all of them were bent in all sorts of directions. Hilarious. I may not have even noticed them if it weren't for that. Thank you Neighbor, for providing a really good Labor Day morning smile.

Then I made my way over to the park, walked passed twenty-five or thirty ducks gathered on the banks of the creek. Most were enjoying the lazy morning with their heads tucked into their feathers. I kind of wish I had brought some bread with me. Maybe that's for tonight's walk.

Then I walked past Brian's grass. That's what I call it. Not this Brian, but his cousin Brian. It was his Eagle Scout project. Cause that's what scouts do, you know. They pretty up the world. And this time it was in the form of new sod--something of which I am very appreciative, especially on my morning walks.

Good start to my day. Next time I need to bring a camera on my walk. I think you'll smile, just like I did, when you see the trees.
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