Reflections

Yesterday, even though the Christmas tree is still up and decorated and there were a million other things needing my attention, I forced myself out of the house to take a few pictures.  With no place in particular in mind but lacking the energy to go very far, I decided on a quick trip down Redart.

The unusual lack of breeze or wind of any sort created a perfect canvas for reflections.

After the whirlwind of Christmas and our trip to New York in December, January finds me--as usual--in a sort of sluggish depressed could someone please explain to me why we can't just hibernate until spring?  melancholy, reflective mood that I always snap out of as soon as warmer weather returns.

But warmer weather is a ways off.

 Some of the things I've been pondering the past few days include:

• Next year around this time I will be 50 years old. Fifty. FIFTY.
• (Good grief. This is my last year to say I am in my forties.)
• My son graduates high school this year and leaves for college (assuming all goes as planned) in the fall.
• (Good grief. In eight months or so, he leaves the nest and ventures out on his own.)
• It's probably not the end of the world if my Christmas tree stays up and decorated another week or so.
• (Good grief. Can I just leave the thing up all year? After I blink three or four times I'm going to be fifty!  it's going to be Christmas again anyway, so why not?)

I could keep adding to the list above until the cows come home, but what it all amounts to is this year will be a year of change, and I need to focus on something positive and good to help me get through.

So, in spite of my arthritic back forcing me to physical therapy, in spite of all the gray hairs that cannot be tamed, and in spite of absolutely zero motivation to do anything other than hibernate, I am declaring that 2014 will be the year that I attempt to complete a full marathon of 26.2 miles. In November.  In the Outer Banks.

Baby Sis and I are going to try this one. She's agreed to do it with me.  

Hey, it may be crazy but it gives me a reason to move, to get up and go outside when I only want to sleep and thumb my nose at winter. And 2014.

This was an exceedingly long-winded way of saying my 2014 goal is to complete* a full marathon.

The End.

~~~~~~~~

* I said complete.  I didn't say run the whole way, and I didn't say that gurneys and wheelchairs might not be involved.  I just want to cross the finish line. Somehow. Before I turn 50.

Bethel Beach

Yesterday I went to Bethel Beach for a jog.  

Ordinarily I run the wooded back roads of Beaverlett, but we're still in the throes of hunting season.

And, although Daughter and I made sure to eat our good luck black-eyed peas on January 1, I didn't want to push that newly accumulated good luck by trudging through a heavily wooded area dotted with bright orange caps and pickup trucks.

So I drove to Bethel Beach, parked the car, snapped a few photos
and went for a leisurely four-mile jog in the direction of Onemo post office.

There wasn't a ripple on the bay, not a hint of wind.

I suppose this could be considered the calm before the storm.

Later on it started to rain.  

One of those cold, super depressing dreary rains.

I'd much rather have snow.

~~~~~~~~~

Have a wonderful weekend.