In Which I Stick the Landing!

"Taking his place on the balance beam now, it's Devin from North Carolina. Devin's had problems with finishing out his routine in the past, will he be able to do it tonight? He lines up for the dismount, and... he lands! Amazing, the boy has landed it!"

That's how I imagine it in my head anyways. Followed by wild cheering and applause from my reader. Hmm? What's that? There are two of you reading this? *Gasp* I have readerssuh, plural! Thank you to those who do read this, it helps me keep my head up. We're back on track with walking and exercising, which pleases me enormously. The cover photo for this blog is another picture from my walk; Clayton is such a beautiful town. I went the other way on the Neuse River Trail and found verdant pastures and amber fields of corn stalks. I can't really call them fields of corn, as the corn appears to have already been harvested. Still pretty. Turns out the city of Raleigh uses the area to handle bio-waste from the wastewater facilities, but it's actually quite pleasant.

I got to see and learn many new things today. Did you know you can hear the electricity running on the big powerlines? I felt a bit nervous with it crackling over my head, but an exciting discovery nonetheless. The city of Raleigh had a helpful plaque explaining about the bio-waste and re-used water, which was where I learned about all that. Going past the corn field made me realize how tall corn stalks are. I never realized how high corn grows! For some reason I always pictured it growing to about head-height, but it grows a few feet beyond that. I feel like there are so many basic things I don't know about the world. It reminds me of the stories of inner-city school children learning about oranges for the first time. It's humbling to realize you lack the most basic of knowledge about something that is a common part of everyday life for someone else.

Enjoying the view with me were multiple dog walkers, some bicyclists, and an older gentleman who couldn't help but catch my eye. He wore a vibrant shirt and shorts, white cotton socks traveling the length of his calves. What hair he had was shaped like a laurel wreath, kept stubbornly in place by a bright blue headband. The glorious thing about it all was he struck me as the sort of person to care not in the least what anyone thought of how he looked; he seemed a man who looked how he did because that was what brought him happiness. It was refreshing. Doubly refreshing was there was nothing to indicate who this man was outside of this nature path he shuffled along. He could be a machinist just as easily as he could be a CEO, and I wouldn't know the difference. There's nothing quite like seeing people out of context of their place of work to make you realize they're just people.

Sorry the blog is so late today! Today was pretty jam-packed; I had to do my weight lifting while doing an online session with some friends. What's important is I got it done.