Scattered Thoughts . . .

T oday, Sheila and I walked more than five miles and my feet and legs are feeling it!   We finally have an appointment for Sheila's car after it broke down on our way to Long Island in June.  The car needs new front struts.  We'll see what else they say it needs sometime tomorrow.  Somehow I doubt getting new struts is the end of the story. We had to drop the car off in Duxbury and it was such a nice day that we decided to hike back to the house rather than get a ride from Sheila's dad.  In all, I think the hike was 5.3 miles and my watch indicated I did over 13,000 steps.  That may sound like a lot but I typically do between 10,000 and 13,000 steps when I mow the lawn every week.  Regardless, today's hike was a bit brutal due to the heat whenever we had to walk on blacktop.  The heat coming off the blacktop made it feel like we were walking through an oven.  Hiking on the grass and dirt, however, felt fine.  Fortunately, most of th...

I am starting to feel a little better so I think it is time for a blog post which is a little bit on the lighter side... A couple of weeks ago, Sheila, Adam and I climbed to the summit of Owl's Head Mountain overlooking Lake Groton. Because of my health, we drove up most of the way and then climbed for about 15 minutes to get to the summit. My days of climbing thousands of vertical feet in a day are behind me. I've climbed many mountains and reached many summits over the decades but now I need some help getting to even the shortest mountains. Any activity which raises my body temperature can trigger anaphylaxis so I always try to stay near roads and hospitals. I definitely try to keep my body temperature as low as possible too. Hiking and climbing deep in the woods could be a bit too risky so in recent years we have been choosing mountaintops which have roads winding to the summit. Besides, I have already climbed my share of mountains, many requiring steep vertical climbs...