The morning plotline.

I've been walking a couple mornings a week. I had been doing the gym circuit five days a week, but my shoulder never healed from January and my knees were getting worse for the wear. I decided that perhaps giving the joints an off day was called for. Unfortunately totally off is really out of the question so I decided to swap in some walking days.

I leave at the time I'd go to the gym. I can't make the dog understand that I can't let him out when I go. It's light out now, but I'm kind of looking forward to the dark again after the time change. There's an anonymity in the early dawn that feeds my soul. I prefer it when it looks as early as it is.

I head down the long driveway and off to the streets of the neighborhood. I start out hating it. The first few walks were exhilarating, but somehow the shine has worn off. I'm tired, I'm grumpy and my back invariably hurts. I wonder how far I'll go today. My street is flat, though, so I can do at least that. The trees are blooming. The maples are covered with dark red buds, more sublte than the flowering trees, but more abundant. At the corner the ministers house is still dripping siding bits. I wonder why they haven't had it fixed yet, as it's been months. I wonder if they ever even see that side of their house?

I turn onto the main road through the neighborhood. It's a long slow incline. I watch the sidewalk carefully for the bumps and ridges of the shifting concrete. By midway I'm usually coughing as the overnight congestion loosens up. It's work but it's not hard work. A short time later I'm at the top.

Decisions again. If I make it up the hill, I can generally convince myself to cross the access road and continue down the hill on the other side. It's a fairly steep slope sliding down the hillside toward the highway. Today it was awash in daffodils. By the time I've reached the dead end I'm lost in thought.

The return trip is obligatory. Good thing, too, because it's a killer. Suddenly the slope looks forbidding. What goes down must come up and by the top I'm wheezing and coughing like an asthmatic. I cross back over to my neighborhood.

This is the tough part. There's no sidewalk here and plenty of traffic. Even at the early hour people are heading for work. I walk toward traffic (like they taught me in grade school) staying close to the shoulder until 3 houses in where the sidewalk starts. Why is that anyway?

From the start of the sidewalk I can head back down the long slope or venture onto the side streets. I turn left onto the long slow loop that also heads back down the hill. It dips at the end far more than the straight trek I came up. It's a reminder of the hills before making a nice little denouement to the walk.

I turn left again for the two blocks my turn. Just a little further to my street again. I stay with the sidewalks on the return, passing the lawn nazi's at the corner (well manicured and mowed already!) There's flowers to see and birds to startle. Before long the end is in sight. Back up the long and straight driveway and up to the door.

The front step is killer at the end. I'm sweating far more than at the gym but maybe that's from the heavy coat. And again I'm home.