Keeping Up the Practice

Relatively long, but productive work at my day job today. I missed taking any photos worth putting up, so for now I'm just keeping up the daily practice.  I did calculate that over the last ten years or so, I've spent a little over 200 days commuting to and from work.

200 days.

That metric lends a little perspective to the pilgrimage which I plan on taking a little less time than that commuting time I've put in over the last decade. From that point of view the walk doesn't sound quite as irresponsible as it might seem at first blush.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the chance at stumbling on some other unique and informative perspectives.

Thinking on Oneness, and a Trip South

I skipped a dedicated walk for exercise today. Travel took up a good part of the day, and frankly, I am tired.

The day started early with fellowship with a good group of folks where the topic of discussion centered around resentments and how they work against healthy living. If I'm honest, I sometimes struggle to keep a sense of oneness at the center of my relationships with both people and institutions, so resentment may be an issue for me address. I don't perceive myself as bitter, but my suspicion is that like eating and exercise the fruits of the way I approach life is an incremental and cumulative process. I don't want to be a bitter or resentful person. I believe that capturing that sense of oneness may prove critical to that vision.

In other news, I headed back down to the land of alligators and fried pickles with a brief stop on the way in the land of early presidential primaries.

Charlotte International Airport - Concourse B (on right) and Concourse C (on left)

Charlotte-Douglas International Airport serves as a major hub for American Airlines since their acquisition last year of US Airways. A friend of mine used to live in Charlotte, and I'm pretty sure I spend more time here than have over the last year. The USO in the airport has the largest collection of challenge coins that I've ever personally witnessed. One of the volunteers told me today that word on the street is that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport owns a bigger collection, but Charlotte was working to catch up. I'm happy to report that I added two coins to their collection over my last two trips. I picked up a ham sandwich and bottle of water and headed on down the road.

An afternoon arrival in Mobile, Alabama led to a relatively late night in the office. By the time the end of the day arrived, the lights of the city were shining in all their glory.

Mobile, AL Skyline at Night

The colors displayed on the building have shifted from the Mardi Gras theme of purple, gold, and green since the last time I traveled down here, and I welcome the change. The picture really doesn't do justice to the grandeur of a big city infrastructure with a small town feel. If it weren't for the heat, humidity, and alligators I might imagine myself living here one day. Even those aspects have their charm. As another friend of mine likes to point out, "You don't have to shovel heat." This phrase seems to pop up just after the Mid-Atlantic region falls on the receiving end of sixteen inches of snow. Tough to refute that logic. 

Habit coerces me to admit that I'm looking forward to reveling in astonishment when the day after today is revealed.

Step 1 - Complete

Today, I let fly and arrow. It remains to be seen where it will land.

Astronaut Candidate Selection Program

There was quite a bit of writing and editing that went into an 18K character summary of my professional life. If you'd like to loose your own arrow, there is still about 24 hours left to throw your hat in the ring. Here's your chance to be and ASCAN.

Who knows, you might find yourself on the top of 300 tons of explosive rocket fuel headed for a swing around Luna. 

No Photos, No Walking, Writing

I didn't make the time to get out and capture any photos today.  I'll make a deliberate effort tomorrow.  The résumé  that I've been dreading for the last several weeks has made some significant progress over the last several days.  I should be able to wrap up the large version of it tomorrow or the next day.

After that, the hard work of editing it down to two or three pages will begin.  It's tough to gist a little less than 20 years of experience down into just a few pages of less than 2000 words. I believe I'm getting the hang of things, but the editing bit is going to be somewhat challenging.  I really do enjoy the challenge of bringing it all together, and I can definitely sense the value of writing just a little bit every day for the last five months coming to bear.

Yet another situation where doing just a little bit every day can lead to quite a bit of incremental progress if applied consistently.  I'm looking forward to what tomorrow may hold.

Superbowl Sunday with a Serving of Gratitude

It occurred to me this morning that the fracture in my left foot has caused me to slow down quite a bit over the last several weeks, and because of that docile pace, I've been granted the opportunity of noticing things that have escaped my observation over of the last 14 months. I certainly didn't relish giving up on my walking streak, but overall, it seems to have become a welcome respite.  It has given me the opportunity to refocus some aspects of my daily practice that had taken a step or two out of the foreground.

This morning, I drove down to the Annapolis Yacht Club parking lot, and I was able to recapture some of the gratitude that I felt early on in my walking discipline.

Sunrise over Eastport

Once again, the still of the morning radiated a sense of serenity on both the water and the land. The day, in all its promise, was just breaking over the horizon.

Gratitude on Spa Creek

When I was walking over the bridge, I spotted this sloop moored at the AYC piers, and I did a double take upon reading the name.  I really wish this panorama had lined up, and it hadn't given the double image to the left, but I suspect there's a message in the imperfection that manifested itself. Gratitude has been clearly doubled, and I'd venture that message is something that I should take onboard. While not intrinsically perfect, the message was just what I needed to start the week.

Gratitude and Serenity on Spa Creek

In spite of some slight flaws with the panorama, I was able to capture some of the Gratitude and serenity of the morning from the overlook of the Eastport Bridge.

The foot is feeling much better, and I only have about two and half weeks to go before I can start getting back into my ambulatory swing. I looking forward to tomorrow and whatever it may bring.

Back to Photography

The foot injury has really disrupted my routine, and I've really had to struggle to maintain my daily practice that has proven so beneficial over the last fourteen months.  The good news for me is that even in the midst of disrupting my walking as well as my routine posting here, the disruption has not been so severe that I neglected every part of the practice on any given day.

I fighting back into the routine, and this morning I was blessed with some time combined with a clear mind and was reminded to capture some photos.  I think one of them is particularly fulfilling.

College Creek in the Morning

The weather was warmish, the wind was calm, and the blue sky  was shining through some high cirrus clouds. Although I wasn't out on the "trail," it was a glorious morning for some photography that captured the interface between the sky and the water, the tactile and the reflected, and I'm glad I remembered to break out the camera.

Columbarium reflected in College Creek

This is a photo taken in the same general location looking across College Creek to Hospital Point at the columbarium at the Naval Academy Cemetery. I think the reflection in the still water of the creek makes this a picture that captures the serenity and peach of the morning quite adequately.

It's good to get back in the swing of things with some reasonably good panoramic photos, and I'm looking forward to seeing how tomorrow unfolds.

Early Evening

I'm pretty tired this evening, so I'm just going to leave this right here and turn in for the night.

Extending the Return to the Newish Routine

I took a bit of my own advice from yesterday, and extended my return to the newish routine that had been established during my recently truncated walking streak. Not walking forced me to explore even more locally some viewpoints of the sunset that have been right in front of my house the whole time, but they were never explored because there never seemed any need to explore them.

It's a lesson for me because as much as I'd like to think of myself as becoming more observant with walking, there is always something new to explore in the one meter around me.

At any rate, I was able to capture the evolution of the sunset today from three different angles at three different and evolving times.

Sunset over Annapolis - Early in the Evolution - Standard Location

This photo was taken from the front porch of the house which has become something close to my default location for capturing pictures of the sunset.  It's nice, but as the sunset evolved, I began trying to think of ways to remove the fencing in the midground from the picture.

Sunset Over Annapolis - Mid-Evolution - Slightly Offset and New Location (for me)

In search of a cleaner midground, I made a very short jaunt down the road, and was able to capture this picture.  Of the three photos this evening, I prefer this one the best.  It's a much cleaner foreground and midground, and I'm able to see clear the view to the colors of the setting sun.

Sunset Over Annapolis - Final Shot - Elevated Position

I really thought that the second photo would be the final shot of the evening, but just a little bit later, I glanced out the third story window of the house and was met with the vista captured in the third and final installment for the evening.

The sun had long dipped below the horizon, but the colors of reflecting off the clouds grew deeper and more stunning as the twilight progressed. I still like the foreground and midground of the second photo, and I wish I had captured these colors from that same perspective, but this one is pretty enriching as well.

It was good to get back into the photography game, and I was blessed with a a richness of color that does not occur every night. It was also quite nice to be reminded that no matter how entrenched and positive my routine might become, there is always something to learn right in front of me.

Returning to "Normal"

It is shockingly easy to revert to norm.  Especially if your norm for many years was watching too much television. My recently furloughed walking schedule gave me a new kind of normal, and one of the elements that it brought along for the ride was taking pictures of the sunrise and sunset.  Since my sabbatical from walking began, I've taken a break from photography as well. Today, I remembered to get out there and cycle a shutter or two.

Sunset in Annapolis

This is a pretty far cry from my better photographic work, but it's an attempt at returning to the newish normal. Looking forward to seeing how it works out tomorrow.

Additional Foot Diagnostics

Tomorrow I head down to the local nuclear medicine section of the radiology department at a major regional medical center to attempt to gain some further insight into what's happened to my left foot. It is really feeling much better, but I'm looking for a definitive diagnosis to help me evaluate risks vs. rewards of behavior going forward.

I really have been quite fortunate that the injury occurred, I was able to go to the doctor the next day, I was able to get the foot immobilized the next day, and that Snowzilla 2016 has given me a chance to rest up before returning to work "full time."  Tomorrow things begin to ramp up a bit, but I'll be able to knock out the next round of doctor's appointments for the radionuclide enhanced imaging without too much impact due to the announced 3 hour late arrival. I'm hoping to have a better idea of the diagnosis before the work gym opens up and I try to get back in the swing of things with some low impact cardio.

One of the things that's been keeping me upbeat has been the ability to absorb this setback and still keep up with the rest of my daily practice.  I also know that my natural tendency toward laziness will kick in if I let things go too far down the path of not replacing my walking with some other daily discipline.

In short, this injury may be a much needed space in which to stretch my limits in new directions, but not if I allow some old (but persistent) habits creep back into the vacuum of time that not walking has left.

Tomorrow, I hope I have some better answers, but the next day will require me to get back into the cardio routine and head off into different directions. I think I may start off on the erg.

Digging Out from Snowzilla 2016

I'm pleased with the progress that I seem to be making getting back into the swing of things using the Controlled Ankle Motion (CAM) boot that I got from the emergency room the other day and resting and icing my left foot. Don't get me wrong, there is still definitely an injury, but I was able to clear the cars today from their snowy entombment.

Halfway Done

I estimate that we received between 18" and 20" of snow during the first blizzard of 2016. Using the CAM boot really kept me mobile and the shovelling was good exercise.

One More to Go

Shovelling snow turned out to be a lot like walking.  As long as I didn't bite off more than I could chew on any single shovel full of snow, I could always take the next bite at the drift. Progress was slow, but inevitable. By the end of the three hours the cars were freed, and I really wasn't too tired. The repetitive cut, scoop, turn, and fling was even meditative.

Getting the cars out of the drifts got me out and about, and that was good after spending about 36 hours in the house. I'm going to keep up the practice of photography as part of an overall maintenance of the daily practice. After an "historic" snowstorm, There were plenty of things to capture through the lens of the camera.

Snowzilla 2016

The day was clear and bright. With temperatures in the low '30s, but above freezing, staying warm with minimal bundling was a welcome change over the last couple of days.

Wrapping things up, I found out later this evening that the powers that be (PTB) had decided to keep work closed through tomorrow.  That presents some interesting opportunities, and I'm looking forward to taking advantage of them as they present themselves.

Yesterday was the End of a Good Long Walking Streak

I didn't post anything yesterday, but it's important for me to acknowledge that yesterday ended a walking streak that included at least 1.5 miles of walking (only once did I go this short of a distance in a day) each day since 04 October 2014.  I don't know how many days that is, but it's probably in the vicinity of 450 days in a row.

The streak ended because I decided to rest my left foot which is experiencing shooting pains along the outside of the arch that have yet to be definitively diagnosed. The  X-Ray was inconclusive, which is reasonably good news, and I suspect a fifth metatarsal stress fracture or a ligament sprain/rupture of some sort.  I did manage to hobble down the the Anacostia River Walk and capture an image of the USS Barry.

 

Anacostia Afternoon Before the Blizzard of 2016 with USS Barry

The distance wasn't great enough to be counted on this jaunt, and my foot was on fire by the time I'd covered the round trip of about half a mile. That was it for the day and the end of a streak. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't keep it going. It was the right call, the rational thing to do, and I'm still not certain what kind of injury I'm dealing with now. Against all the rational arguments to end it here, for now anyway, I still feel like I've lost a little something that has come to define my daily existence.

Enough maudlin talk.  At the end of the afternoon today, I was able to make my way out to the front porch and capture the results to date of the Blizzard of 2016 currently being referred to as Snowzilla.

Snowzilla 2016

I haven't measured the depth, and I'm unlikely to take that scientific of an approach, but I guess that we've gotten pretty close to 20 inches of snow in the last 24 hours.  That smallish white lump near the street light is a Honda CRV, and I'm not dancing for in the streets at the prospect of shovelling it out tomorrow. It will have to be done, and it will be a good test of the impact of rest on the foot. Today was a good day for rest, and I actually have managed to pay down some of the sleep debt that I've been accumulating.

I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will hold.