Everything's Relative

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click photos to enlarge

Saved!

review/return 3 papers

purchase 3 pairs of shoes, one cucumber, one bag of chocolate chips

send/receive multiple text messages/emails

read The New York Times/Facebook/blogs/recommended things

drive 54 miles

walk

photograph (84), upload to Lightroom, adjust/upload 3 snaps

notice one Widow Skimmer/Green Darner, several Blue Dashers/Ebony Jewelwings/Eastern Bluebirds/crows/Redwing Blackbirds, 1 Great Blue Heron, 2 adult/3 young Canada Geese, 1 fox

visit SOUL (where flowers once cleansed spirits)

 

Happy Feet (A Coming Attraction)

Thanks to a brilliant pedorthist in Nashville, my feet are on the way to happiness (for the first time in longer than I can remember). One 45-minute visit, one purchase of New Balance shoes (in a style and size I didn't know New Balance makes), and one hour-long walk promise great things to come.

Next? Orthotics at the end of the month.

Be still my bunions: soon you may be forgotten.

Does This Happen to Everyone?

You go about living your life till one moment your curiosity is piqued, ending your long habit of blithely going about your days and nights in blissful ignorance, and that very thing that captured your interest (that thing about which you previously knew nothing) now takes precedence in your mind, so much so that whatever you do and wherever you are, you run smack dab into it.

Like today, for instance. On my way home from shoe shopping in Tullahoma, I drove through Arnold Air Force Base and decided to have a look at Woods Reservoir. I parked by the water, opened the door, stepped out, and ran smack dab into this damselfly.

Big Bluet

Fond Farewell

Two weeks less than a year ago, I bought these shoes from Clayton's, a family-owned store about forty-five minutes from here.

I have loved these shoes: they have taken me to Lake Cheston every day, to many other lakes on the Domain, to Abbo's Alley, and to points -- indoor and outdoors -- all over the mountain and far beyond. 

I have stepped on stones and sand and mud and snow and ice and puddles and wood and metal and concrete.

I have seen wonders in these shoes. 

These shoes fit my feet, and both were made for wandering.

The soles split, the tread worn and shredded, it's time to move on. Goodbye, old friends. 

Thanks for the memories.

New Shoes!

I used to care about fashion.

That is, until melanoma surgery (a wide excision) left an unattractive indentation below my knee. Until my back began to deteriorate at 26 and only continued to get worse until I had surgery 23 years later. Until I developed bone spurs, stress fractures, and permanent plantar fasciitis, relieved somewhat by another surgery. Until my skinny body (my mother used to make eat three slices of white bread every Saturday throughout childhood because she said, "The wind will blow you away") became a middle-aged one.

Now comfort and ease rule: FLAX linen clothing for work, jeans and pajama pants at home, and Haflinger clogs. I buy one pair, wear them out, and buy another. My third pair arrived today. Hooray! Here's the old and new picture.Even without the tag, it's obvious which is which, yes? You gotta love online ordering and UPS delivery!